SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 

UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS 



A STUDY IN ETHNIC DISTRIBUTION AND 
INVENTION. 



BY 



OTIS TUFTON MASON, 

Curator^ Division of Ethnology. 



From tho Report of the United States National Museum for 1900, pages 189-;]04, 
with twenty plates. 



»# 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTINa OFFICE. 
1902. 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 

UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS: 



A STUDY IN ETHNIC DISTRIBUTION AND 
INVENTION. 



BY 



OTIS TUFTON MASON, 

w 

Curnfor, Dhusion of Ethnology. 



From the Report of tlio United States National Miisonm for 1900, pages 189-304, 
with twenty plates. 




WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, 
1902. 



HV' 



0.1 15 1904 
D.ofD, 






Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/aboriginalameric01maso 



Report of U. S. National Museum 1900.— Mason. 



Frontispiece. 




/^ 



J 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS: 
A STUDY IN ETHNIC DISTRIBUTION AND INVENTION 

BY 

OTIS TUFTOK MASOI^, 

Curator, Division of Ethnology. 



NAT MUS 1900 13 ^gQ 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Page. 

I. List of illustrations 193 

II. List of authorities 196 

III. Introduction 197 

lY. South American harpoons: Fuegian, av est coast, Brazilian, and Carib 212 

V. North American harpoons: Mexican, Central American, Californian, 
Columbia River, southeastern Alaskan, Muskhogean, ^Mississippi Val- 
ley, Atlantic coast, Canadian, and Athapascan 219 

VI. Arctic harpoons: East Greenland, west Greenland, Labrador and Hud- 
son Bay, Baffin Land, Mackenzie River, Arctic Alaska, and Kadiak . . 236 
VII. Conclusion 303 

191 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PLATES. 

Facing page. 

P>ontispiece. The master of the harpoon 189 

1. Accessories to the harpoon 208 

2. Fuegian barbed harpoon heads 212 

3. Harpoon arrow and sheath, Venezuela 216 

4. Toggle harpoon, east Greenland 238 

5. Seal harpoon from west Greenland 240 

6. Complete seal harpoon, Cumberland Sound 260 

7. Toggle harpoon heads, Amur River and Cumberland Sound 262 

8. Barbed harpoon, with hand rests, St. Michael Island, Alaska 282 

9. Barbed harpoon, with hand rest and bladder, Norton Sound 284 

10. Larger Bering Sea harpoon 290 

11. Barbed harpoon for throwing stick, Sledge Island 292 

12. Sea-otter harpoon, Bristol Bay, Alaska 294 

13. Long-handled barbed harpoon, Bristol Bay 296 

14 and 15. Toggle harpoon, line, and float, Kusilvak, Yukon River 298 

16 and 17. Barbed sea-otter harpoon arrows, Alaskan Peninsula „ . . 300 

18. Barbed harpoon dart for throwing stick 302 

19. Barbed harpoon with float, Kadiak, Alaska , 304 



TEXT FIGURES. 

Page. 

1. Type form of toggle head, Hudson Bay 201 

2. Loose shafts of toggle harpoons, Cumberland Sound 204 

3. Eyelet on harpoon line, Cumberland Sound 206 

4. Line swivel, Cumberland Sound 206 

5. Sealskin float, Cumberland Sound 207 

6. Mouthpieces to floats, Cumberland Sound 207 

7. Seal indicators, Point Barrow, Alaska 209 

8. SeaUng stool. Point Barrow, Alaska 210 

9. Line detacher, St. Michael, Alaska 210 

10. Decoy for seal. Sledge Island, Alaska 211 

11. Ice scoops, Amur River and Bristol Bay 212 

12. Fuegian barbed harpoon 213 

13. Barbed harpoon heads, Chile and Peru 215 

14. Harpoon arrow, Bororo Indians, Brazil 217 

15. Turtle harpoon, Seri Indians 222 

16. Barbed harpoon head, Seri Indians 223 

17. Toggle harpoon, Hupa Indians, California 223 

18. Barbed harpoon head, Naltunne Indians, Oregon , 225 

19. Salmon spear, Quinaielt Indians, Washington 226 

20. Toggle head and line, Makah Indians, Washington 228 

193 



194 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 

Page. 

21. Sealskin float, Makah Indians, Wasliington 229 

22. Toggle harpoon, Thompson Indians, British Columbia 233 

23. Hinged toggle head, east Greenland 238 

24. Toggle head, west Greenland 240 

25. Toggle head, west Greenland 241 

26. Toggle and l)arbed harpoon head, west ( ireenland 244 

27. Toggle head, west Greenland 245 

28. Old toggle head, north Greenland 246 

29. Old barbed and toggle head, west (jreenland 246 

30. Barbed harpoon head, northern Greenland -. 247 

31. Old harpoon head, north Greenland 247 

32. Toggle head, west Greenland 248 

33. Old barbed and toggle head, west Greenland 248 

34. Old toggle head, north Greenland 249 

35. Old barbed and toggle head, west Greenland 250 

36. Barbed and toggle head, west Greenland 251 

37. Barbed and toggle head, west Greenland 251 

38. Toggle head, west Greenland 252 

39. Old toggle head, west Greenland 252 

40. Old toggle head, west Greenland 252 

41. Toggle head, west Greenland 253 

42. Small toggle head, west Greenland 253 

43. Old toggle head, west Greenland 253 

44. Old toggle head, west Greenland 254 

45. Small toggle head, west Greenland . ,^.j^i. .j^.vi^^rt 254 

46. Old toggle head, west Greenland . . . ~-^f}i- t-r,^!- r ., ^ r - - 254 

47. Small toggle head, west Greenland ... .^^^ -^,-. 255 

48. Shaft of smaller harpoon, south Greenland 255 

49. Foreshaft and loose shaft of figure 48 256 

50. Old toggle head, Upernavik, Greenland 256 

51. Model of harpoon. Whale River, Canada. 257 

52. Old barbed and toggle head, Upernavik, Greenland 260 

53. Loose head of lance. Repulse Bay 260 

54. Toggle head. Repulse Bay, northeast Canada 261 

55. Head of whale harpoon, Hudson Bay 262 

56. Head of whale lance, Cumberland Sound 263 

57. Toggle head, Cumberland Sound 264 

58. Loose head of lance, Cumberland Sound 264 

59. Loose head of lance, Cumberland Sound 265 

60. Loose head of lance, Cumberland Sound 265 

61. Old toggle head with stone blade 266 

62. Barbed and toggle head, Mackenzie River 271 

63. Toggle head, Diomede Island, Bering Strait 272 

64. Model of toggle head, Kotzebue Sound 272 

65. Toggle head, Diomede Island, Bering Strait 273 

66. Toggle head of whale harpoon. Point Barrow, Alaska 273 

67. Toggle head, Point Barrow, Alaska „ 273 

68. Toggle head, with leader, Point Barrow - 274 

69. Walrus toggle head harpoons. Point Barrow, Alaska .... 275 

70. Sealing harpoon, Point Barrow, Alaska 275 

71. Old l)arbed and toggle heads, Point Barrow, Alaska 276 

72. Old Transition harpoon head. Point Barrow, Alaska 276 

73. Bar])ed and toggle head. Point Jiarrow, Alaska 277 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS, 195 

Page. 

74. Combined ))arbe(l and toggle head, Point Barrow, Alaska. 278 

75. Barbed and toggle head, Point Barrow, Alaska 278 

76. Combined barbed and toggle head, Point Barrow, Alaska 279 

77. Old toggle head, Point Barrow, Alaska 279 

78. Old-style toggle head, Point Barrow, Alaska 280 

79. Retrieving harpoon. Point Barrow, Alaska 281 

80. Detail of figure 78 281 

81. Toggle head harpoon, Norton Sound, Alaska '. 285 

82. Barbed harpoon, St. Michael Island, Alaska 286 

83. Toggle head and accessories, Kuskokwim River 288 

84. Toggle head and accessories, Kuskokwim River 289 

85. Toggle head, Cape Nome, Norton Sound, Alaska 290 

86. Iron toggle head. Sledge Island, Norton Sound, Alaska 291 

87. Toggle head, Port Clarence, Bering Sea, Alaska 291 

88. Toggle harp(jon head, Bristol Bay, Alaska 297 

89. Modern harpoon head of iron, Cumberland Sound 301 

90. Iron toggle head, Amur River, Asia 301 

91. Shaft of toggle harpoon, CHimberland Sound 302 

92. Bone foreshaft of harpoon, Bristol Bay, Alaska ... ....... 302 



LIST OF AUTHORITIES. 



1874-1876. H. H. Bancroft. Native races of the Pacific States. New York, 1874- 
1876, 5 vols. (The bibUography in the first vohiine contains the titles of all 
early explorers on the west coast of America down to the time of publication. ) 

1888. Fr.\nz Boas. The Central Eskimo. Sixth annual report of the Bureau of 
Ethnology, etc. AVashington, 1888, pp. 399-669, pis. ii-x, figs. 390-546. 
( Excellent bibliography of older Avriters. ) 

1890-1900. David Boyle. Reports on the Archaeology of Canada. Toronto, Depart- 
ment of Education of the Province of Ontario, 1890-1900. 

1877. William H. Dall. Contributions to North American Ethnology, I. Wash- 
ington, 1877. 

1887, Gustav Holm. Ethnologisk Skizze af Angmagsalikerne. Copenhagen, 1887, 

1-164, 363-400 pp., 32 pis., map. 

1891. 1*. Hyades and J. Deniker. Mission Scientifique du Cap Horn, 1882-1883, 

YII, Anthropologic, Ethnologic. Paris, 1891, 422 pp., 34 pis., map. 
1894. A. G. MoRiCE. Notes arch?eologiques, industrielles et sociologiques sur les 
Denes occidentaux. Transactions of the Canadian Institute, 1894, 199 pp., 
figs. 

1892. John Murdoch. Ethnological Results of the Point Barrow Expedition, etc. 

Ninth annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology. Washington, 1892 (1893). 
pp. 3-44, pis. i-xi, figs. 1-428. (Good bibliography.) 

1899. E. W. Nelson. The Eskimo about Bering Strait. Eighteenth annual report 

of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Part I. Washington, 1899, 518 pp., 
107 pis., 165 figs., map. 

1888. A. P. NiBLACK. The coast Indians of southern Alaska and northern British 

Columbia. Report U. S. National Museum, 1888, pp. 225-386, pis. 1-70, 
figs. 1-297, map. 

1891. J. W. Powell. Indian linguistic Families of North America. Seventh annual 
report of the Bureau of Ethnology. Washington, 1891, 1-142 pp. 

1877. Stephen Powers. Tribes of California. Contributions to North American 
Ethnology, III. Washington, 1877, 635 pp., figs., maps. 

1898. Frank Russell. Explorations in the far North, being a report of an expedi- 
tion under the auspices of the University of Iowa. 1 898, 290 pp. , pi. , map. 

1894. Karl von den Steinen. Unter den Naturvolkern Zentral-Brasiliens. Ber- 
lin, 1894, 570 pp., 145 figs., map. 

1900. James Teit. The Thompson River Indians of British Columbia. Memoirs, 

American Museum of Natural History, New York, II, Anthropology, I, 392 

pp., pis. xiv-xx. 
1883. Edward F. Im Thurn. Among the Indians of (iuiana: being sketches, chiefly 

anthropologic, from the interior of Britisli Guiana. London, 1883, 445 

pp. , 53 illustrations, and a map. 
1894. LuciEN Turner. The Hudson Bay Eskimo. Eleventh annual report of the 

Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 159-350, pis. 26-43, figs 121-155. Washington, 

1894. (Edited by John Murdoch.) 
196 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS: 
A STUDY ON ETHNIC DISTRIBUTION AND INVENTION. 



By Otis Tufton Mason, 
Ciirofor, Division of Ethnology, 



INTRODUCTION. 

The aborigines of the Western Hemisphere were intimate!}" asso- 
ciated with the animal world. Their methods of taking* animals for 
their activities were as follows: 

1. Gathering without devices. 

2. Gathering with devices. 

3. Striking, stunning, bruising, 
-i. Slashing with edged weapons. 

5. Piercing, by stabbing, by thrusting, by hurling, or ])y shooting. 

6. Taking in traps or blinds. 

7. Hunting by means of other animals. 

8. Capturing with light, fire, and smoke. 

9. Overcoming by asphyxiation, poisons, and drugs. 

In piercing devices the ends proposed are two, namely, to reach 
some vital part, and hence to kill instantly, or to insert a barb or tog- 
gle under the skin and thereby retrieve the animal. These piercing 
devices may be divided into three subclasses, namely: Those with a 
smooth blade, called lances, for stabbing; those whose blades or work- 
ing part have barbs on the sides for retrieving as well as piercing, and 
the harpoon subclass with movable head. A harpoon is a piercing and 
retrieving device with a movable head. Few other inventions of sav- 
ager}^ show better the progress of thought in devising means for over- 
coming difficulties than the harpoon. In order to differentiate this 
implement from others of the piercing type, let it ])e understood that 
the head is always set loosely on the end of a shaft, to which it is 
attached by means of a line. Even when shot from a bow, missiles 
having this structure are called harpoon arrows. Every part of the 
harpoon, b}^ its dimensions and form, b}" its presence or absence, or 
by its material and attachment, lends itself to classification in the 
studies of progress concerning the apparatus itself and its geographic 
distribution. 

197 



y 



198 RKPORT OK NATIONAL MITSEUM, 1900. 

Retwooii tli(» slijirpciicd stick or ])oiio, which wounds by piorcino- and 
which is the fundamental device of all lanceolate weapons, and the 
harjxx)!!. thiMH^ are one or two intenntKliate forms among- the Eskimo 
usually associated with the harpoon. They may be called the hing-ed 
lance head and the detachable lance h(Mid. In the iirsl named the ivor}^ 
or bone piece, into the front of which the leaf -shaped blade is set, is at 
its other extn^nity hinged to the foreshaft, like the loose shaft of a 
whale harpoon. The detachable lance head has a handle or tang- of 
wood about a foot in length and less than an inch in diameter. On 
the front is set a leaf-shaped or a triangular blade, and the conical base 
of the tang tits into a socket in the end of the heavy shaft. In some 
examples there is an iA^ory l)arb projecting from the handle near the 
blade, which is a spear characteristic, but in this instance it was 
designed to retrieve the lance head and not the animal. E. W. Nelson 
figures and describes a great A^ariety of these. ^ He says in relation to 
them that they are used when the seal or Avalrus has been disabled so 
that it can not keep out of reach of its pursuers, and the hunter pad- 
dles up close alongside and strikes the animal, driving the detachable 
head in its entire length. The head remains in the animal, and the 
hunter immediately tits another point into the shaft and repeats the 
bloAv, thus inserting as many of the barbed heads as possible, ttntil the 
animal is killed or the supply of points exhausted. Every hunter has 
his private mark cut on these points, so that, Avhen the animal is 
secured, each is enabled to reclaim his own. These lances are compan- 
ions of harpoons, and examples will be shown in their proper 
connection. 

The manner of functioning with the harpoon will be considered only 
incidentally here, inasmuch as there is abundant literature on the sub- 
ject prepared by those who haA' e been eA^ewitnesses of its action (see 
frontispiece). For the Eskimo the student may consult Dall (1877), 
Holm (1887), Boas (1888), Turner (1894), Murdoch (1892), and Nelson 
(1899). The older writings are abundant!}^ quoted in these, and the 
titles of authorities for the Avestern Eskimo Avill be found in H. H. 
Bancroft (1874-1870). It is with pleasure here acknoAvledged that the 
careful observations of these explorers on the spot have made possible 
this comparative study. 

I'ARTS OF THE IIARPOOX. 

The fiuulainental or ideal parts of the harpoon are head, loose shaft, 
foreshaft, shaft, ice pick, line, and float. These parts rarely all coexist 
in a single specimen, but the Eskimo have them all on their various 
harpoons, Avhile each part also takes on a nuiltitude of forms and itself 
is often quite complex. Besides th(\s(^ fundamental parts, there are 
also a luunber of accessories, which Avill be considered in their places. 

'The Eskimo al)out B('rin,ijr Strait, 1899, ]»)). 145-148, pi. lvii. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 199 

There are two varieties of harpoons, based on the shape of the 
head — the barbed and the toggle; but the former or simpler passes 
insensibh^ into the latter. Barbed harpoon heads are attached to the 
shaft b}' means of a connecting line tied to the butt or tang of the 
head, and ma}^ be used on animals with tough hides (see tig. 12). The 
toggle harpoon head is attached to its line or sling by its middle, the 
head is driven entirely into the animal, and toggling under the skin 
gives the firmest possible hold (see fig. 1). It will give the best idea 
of the apparatus to take up the parts of the harpoon in order, and after 
that to study the question of distribution. 

PARTS OF THE BARBED HARPOON. 

The parts of a complete barbed harpoon are barbed head, foreshaft, 
shaft, line, feather, and bladder (Plates 8, 9, 11, 10, 17, 18, and 19). 

Barhed head. — The head of a barbed harpoon is a piece of wood, 
bone, antler, ivory, shell, or metal, with tooth-like projections from 
its margins pointing backward, so that it ma\^ pierce the hides of 
animals but can not be withdrawn. Its action is to ratchet and retrieve 
the game. The parts of a barbed head ma}^ be referred to as point, 
body, margins or edges, sides or faces, barbs, line hole or groove, and 
tang (see figs. 13, 18 and 81). As to position the barbs are unilateral or 
bilateral. The unilateral may be from one to many. Bilateral barbs 
are sagittate, alternate, or opposite. The tang is wedge-shaped, 
conical, or spindle-shaped, and in relation to the connecting line is 
roughened, notched, bulbous, or pierced. 

Foreshaft. — The foreshaft of a barbed harpoon is a more or less 
cylindrical or pear-shaped piece of heavy material, bone or ivory, 
fitted on to the end of the shaft, and having a socket in front to receive 
the tang of the barbed head. In the rudest harpoons, such as the 
Fuegian, nothing of the kind exists. In some examples the foreshaft 
is elaborately carved in imitation of the heads of aquatic animals. 
The attachment of the foreshaft to the shaft is by means of a splice, 
a wedge-shaped tang and kerf, a socket in the shaft fitting a projec- 
tion on the foreshaft, or a socket in the loose shaft fitting a projection 
on the shaft. ^ There is no other part of the mechanism which taxed 
aboriginal skill more than the joint between shaft and foreshaft. 
The socket in the front of the foreshaft for the tang of the barbed 
head has inserted in it a plug of wood having a small cavity into which 
the tang of the head fits loosely. The loose shaft and the shaft are 
bound fast together with sinew twine or fine rawhide line, the many 
ingenious knots appearing in the drawings (see fig. 83). 

Shaft. — The shaft of a barbed harpoon is of wood, generally rigid, 
but of light weight. In length it varies from a few inches to man}" 

^ E. W. Nelson, The Eskimo about Bering Strait, 1899, pi, lvii/>, figs. o3, 34. 



200 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 

feet; in thickness, from one-fourth of an inch to more than one inch. 
Its front end ma}' be fitted to a foreshaft, but in the most primitive 
examples there is a rude split or a mere cavity dug for the tang of the 
barb. The manual or inner end of the shaft varies in form, being 
either tapering and without function, or fitted to receive the hook of 
a throwing stick, or notched for a bowstring, or having an ice pick 
of hard material securely fastened to it.^ When not projected from a 
throwing stick or shot from a bow the barbed harpoon is held in or 
hurled from the hand. In that event hand rests or offsets are lashed 
to the shaft near the center of gravity.^ 

Connecting line. — The connecting line of a barbed harpoon at first 
was only a bit of string or thong uniting the head to the shaft. If 
there be no connecting line between head and shaft, the weapon is 
called a rankling arrow, because the head stays in the animal and 
causes death. However, the rude Fuegian inventors have gotten 
beyond that, for the thong is carried halfway down the shaft and 
made fast here and there with knots. The same happy thought is 
called by Murdoch an "assembling line," since it serves in case of a 
break in the shaft to save the pieces. In the larger harpoons and the 
more delicate ones the assembling line is a separate affair. The line 
of the more complicated barbed harpoons is fastened at one end through 
the line hole of the head. The other end is bifurcated, like the martin- 
gale of a bridle, or a kite string. One end of this martingale is tied to 
the shaft near the foreshaft, the other near the butt end of the shaft. 
When the harpoon is ready to be hurled the line is neatly rolled on 
the shaft, the head is placed in its socket, and a slipknot around the 
shaft takes the slack in the line. When the game is struck the head is 
pulled from its socket, the slipknot is released, and the line unrolls. 
The foreshaft being of bone, drops lowest in- the water, so that the 
shaft acts as a drag. It serves also as a buoy, since the upper end, 
especially when feathered, bobs about over the water and shows the 
position of the game. 

The feathering of the barbed harpoon is that of the arrow. Look- 
ing at this characteristic from the southward, the occurrence of feath- 
ers on the shafts of harpoons in lower Bering Sea is not abnormal. 
The float of the barbed harpoon is a small inflated bladder, stomach, 
or intestine attached to the side of the shaft, helping to keep the latter 
erect in the water. These structural elements are much more highly 
developed in the toggle series now to be studied. The barbed harpoon 
is of especial interest to the archaeologist, who finds heads of bone or 
antler with holes and knobs or grooves for attaching the connecting line 
and every variety of barb, in both shell heaps and cemeteries through- 
out Canada and the United States. 

^The Eskimo about Bering Strait, 1899, pi. i.iv and i.v. 
2 Idem., pi. xLvii h, figs. 31-32. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



201 



PARTS OK THE TOtUJLE JIAKPOON, 



Toggle head. — In describing a toggle harpoon head it is necessary to 
orient it, not that the Eskimo is known to have hekl an\' portion of 
the apparatus uppermost habitually, but for the 
sake of convenience in comparing different types 
and styles. However, Captain Herendeen in- 
forms the author that so far as his personal 
observation goes the barb of a toggle harpoon 
head, like the cock feather in an arrow, is held 
uppermost. (See fig. 1.) 

To orient a toggle it must be placed with the 
barb or spur at the rear end uppermost, the 
point away from the observer. It will then be 
possible to speak of the top, back, or upper side; 
of the bottom, belly, or under side; of the right 
margin and the left margin; of the front or 
point; and of the butt end or rear. In those 
large examples, wherein there are right and left 
barbs in the rear, with the blade in the plane 
of the widest diameter of the body (Cat. Nos. 
45947, 63948, 53950, ligs. 34-50), the top may 
be distinguished from the bottom by means of 
the line hole, which runs in a bent course 
through the body. 

The parts of a toggle head have been discussed 
by Mr. John Murdoch.' 

When the toggle head is oriented it will be 
seen that it is possible to speak of the following 
parts: Body, blade, blade slit or kerf, line hole, 
line grooves, barbs (side and rear), socket for 
loose shaft, butt or rear end of the body, loose 
shaft, blade line, loose-shaft loop or running 
loop, head line or leader, ornamentations, and 
owner marks. Each one of these parts should be described and 
even its absence noted. The characteristics of these parts are as 
follows: 

Body. — Its material, shape in outline and section, and dimensions. 

Blade. — Its material, shape, relation to the bod}^ whether a part of 
it or not; orientation, whether vertical or horizontal in the plane par- 
allel with the line hole or across it. 

Blade slit or kerf. — Whether saw cut or coarse; its orientation. 
The blade cover is frequently a case or cover for the entire toggle 
head. 




Fig. 1. 

TYPE FORM OF TOGGLE HEAD. 

Hudson Bay. 

Collected by Ludwig Kumlien. 

Cat. No. 25654, U.S.N. M. 



^ Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology. 



202 . REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1<)0(). 

Lhu hole, — Tho ()penin<»- through the )K)dy of the toggle head for 
the rawhide sling or leader on whieh the toggle head hinges. In ver}^ 
modern examples and in the heads of small seal harpoons the hole is 
bored straight through, hut in old specimens two much coarser holes 
are bored, one from each side of the belly inward and upward, meet- 
ing midwa3\ All sharp edges within and without are carefully 
smoothed and rounded to protect the line and to facilitate the toggling. 
The points to ])e considered concerning the line hole are the shape, 
size, and method of boring, and its position with reference to the 
other parts of the toggle head. Line holes run directly through the 
narrow body type, but in a curved path through the belly of other 
types. In a few abnormal specimens it stands vertical, but in the 
great majority of examples it goes horizontally across the body. 
Holm ligures toggle heads from east Greenland, in which the head is 
hinged to the foreshaf t b}' means of a rivet. 

Line grooves. — Gutters or channels extending backward from the 
line hole in which the rawhide line lies out of the wa3\ In fact the 
line grooves are backward extensions of the line hole. Their width 
and depth have relation to the width and thickness of the rawhide line 
used. In old specimens the}' are wider and clumsier. 

Barh or spur.—Thii projection backward in a toggle head at its butt 
end has for its function to catch into the flesh of the animal beneath 
the skin, so as to revolve the head ninet}' degrees, and thus to effect 
the toggling of the head in the wound, as in the fastening of a trace 
chain. In its way it is as important as the blade, and it will be seen 
that quite as much ingenuit}' has been spent on this part as on any 
other. If, for example, when the animal is struck, the spurs of the 
rear barb were covered by the rawhide line the head might not toggle; 
hence, in a toggle head of the old-fashioned type the line hole lies 
below^ the center of the mass. The entire projection of the toggle head 
back of the line hole ma}' be called the spur to distinguish it from 
marginal barbs also sometimes present. 

Shaft socket. — The socket is li conoidai excavation in the butt end of 
a toggle head, into which the forward end of the shaft or loose shaft 
fits loosel}'. It will be readily understood that the socket is centered 
as exactly as possible. There is little or no variation in this part 
except of size and neatness. When the toggle head has been thrust 
into a beast the foreshaft or the loose shaft must be Avithdrawn in 
order to allow the weapon to do its work. 

Butt. — The butt or rear end of a toggle head is shaped in relation 
to the barb especially and also to the socket. In fact, the upper por- 
tion of the butt end is a part of the barb or spur. The exact method 
of shaping and treating this part seems to depend largely on the mate- 
rial, whether ivory, antler, or bone. The fii'st named is solid, and 
the butt is acute angled above and sawed off' stjuare below. The other 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAK HARPOONS. 203 

materials have more or less of spongy core or are hollow. In such 
examples the butt is mitered off with the acute angle at the barbs, and 
then scooped out and dished about the socket. 

Blade line. — This is wanting in a great many examples. It is a 
little twine of sinew extending from the inner left-hand corner of the 
bladcy where it is looped into a small perforation, backward to the 
first wrapping of the leather sling or leader. 

Leader or sling. — The toggle sling is a loop of rawhide thong or 
sinew twine, a foot, more or less, in length, passing through the line 
hole of the toggle head at one end and at the other end attached to the 
main line by means of a splice, toggle, or clasp, to be described later. 
The two ends of this sling are spliced or joined after the neatest and 
most elaborate Eskimo styles. At one or more points the two sides 
of the loop are carefully united by wrapping (fig. 83). In the collec- 
tions of the U. S. National Museum the smaller harpoon heads with 
leaders are accompanied with sticks of pine wood on which the appa- 
ratus is kept stretched when not in action (tig. 8-1). In the great har- 
poons, as Avill be learned in the description of the line, there is no 
leader or sling to the toggle head, which is hinged at once onto a bend 
in the end of the main line. Without the hinging line the movable 
head is only a rankling device. For instance, the loose head of many 
South American arrows, formed of a socketed bone of a uionkey, 
remains in the wound, but not being attached to a line for retrieving 
it is not a harpoon head. The step between the two, however, is but 
a short one. 

Loose sJiuft. — The part of a toggle harpoon which, at its forward 
end, fits into the socket of the head and in some way is hinged or 
joined to the foreshaft at its hinder end, as seen in figs. 2, 18, is called 
the loose shaft. The two varieties are the spindle-shaped imd the 
conoidal. The former is joined on to the leader or sling of the toggle 
head by a running loop or grommet (tig. 83); the latter is strapped to 
the end of the shaft b}" a rawhide thong, and makes a ball-and-socket 
joint (tig. 49). In either case the body of the loose shaft is perforated 
with one or more holes. When the toggle head is in place on the 
loose shaft the line is drawn taut, so that the loop or bone eyelet on 
the line may be buttoned over its peg on the shaft (tig. 79). 

Writers on the Eskimo harpoon say that the kneejoint between the 
Joose shaft and the foreshaft is to prevent the accidental breaking of 
the shaft. Captain Spicer gives additional functions to this structure 
of the implement. He says that it aids in the shipping and imshipping 
of the toggle head with reference to the loose shaft after the eyelet on 
the line is over its peg on the shaft. When an Eskimo hunter would 
prepare his harpoon for striking, he puts the e3^elet which is attached 
to the line over the peg on the shaft, sets the loose shaft at an angle 
in the socket of the shaft, puts the toggle head in position, and 



204 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



straightens up the loo.se shaft. This brings all taut for the stroke. 
As soon as the game is struck the shaft is pulled to one side b}^ the 
movements of the animal, the loose shaft comes out of its socket and 
detaches itself from the toggle head. This enables the huntei* to pull 
away his shaft easily and instantly. 

F()7'efihaff. — The foreshaft of a harpoon is the working end of the 
shaft, and is usually a block of bone or ivorj^ neatly fitted on. Fore- 
shafts vary in material, being of 
antler, bone, ivory, or metal; in size 
and shape, from the delicate front 
of the sea-otter harpoon to the 
cUnnsy varietv on the Greenland 
whaling harpoon; in the mode of 
attachment to the shaft, in the 
socket, and lashing for the loose 
shaft (see Plates 0, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 
and 18). 

Shaft. ^T\i^. shaft of the har- 
poon is of wood; in treeless areas, 
of driftwood, but in the north Pa- 
cific it is a long, slender pole of 
cedar. For the purpose of stud}^, 
shafts have to be considered in 
relation to materials, shapes, and 
sizes; to hand stops or rests for 
thrusting; to line pegs, throwing 
stick pegs, assembling line, etc. 
For catching sea-otter the dart 
shaft is half an inch in diameter 
and -1 feet long, while some of the 
clumsy Greenland examples are 2 
or 3 inches in diameter, and the 
east Greenland deep-water variet}^ 
and sled variety for killing on the 
ice at a distance have shafts many 
feet in length, requiring two men 
to work them. 

The shaft has the double f unctior: 
of stabbing and retrieving. For the former (1) it may be thrust at the 
victim, in which case, in order to give a firmer grasp, a projecting 
piece of wood or })one or ivorv is fastened near the center of gravity 
to stop the hand. Near this is frequently found a peg, over which is 
hooked the line to hold the head firmly on to the loose shaft. (2) It 
may be thrown as a javelin from the hands. (3) It may be hurled 
from a throwing stick. This method will be more fully described in a 




Fig. 2. 
LOOSE SHAFTS OF TOGGLE HARPOONS. 

Cumberland Sound. 

Collected by Ludwig Kumlienand I.ucieii Turner. 

Cat. Nos. 9016.5, 2991, 34098, 340fi8. 

After Franz Boas. 



ABOEIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 205 

special paper. The series begins with the plain shaft, and inchides 
the hand-rest type, the throwing stick type, the Giliak long pole and 
floating-head type, the east Greenland sled-point type, the east Green- 
land deep-sea shaft type, and the Amazon type, in which the throwing 
stick is cast overboard. 

By the function of retrieving is meant recovering the game after it 
has been struck. For this purpose the shaft is in many cases thrown 
overboard, and, being attached by one end of the line, while the other 
is tied to the harpoon head in the animal, acts as a drag and a buoy to 
impede the progress of the animal and to show its position. 

Icej^iclc. — ^On the butt end of the harpoon shaft may be found, in 
arctic examples, a long ivory pick for enlarging a hole in the ice in 
order to remove the game. This is replaced with a boat-hook arrange- 
ment in others. Types of the butt end of the shaft exist in the forms 
following: 

1. The plain butt, without function. 

2. The feathered end, akin to the arrow. 

3. The socketed end, for throwing stick. 

4. The Greenland type, with ivory feathering. 

5. The pick. 

6. The carved pick, Nunivak type, on lances with loose heads. 
Nansen ^ traces the elaborate Greenland harpoon shaft, with its many 

accessories, thus: 

1. The Indian arrow, with its variety of feathering. 

2. The feathered harpoon darts in southeastern Alaska. 

3. Farther north the disappearance of the feather and the occurrence 
of the small bladder on the shaft. 

4. The harpoon, with line and skin float, the last named being de- 
tached from the shaft and attached to the head. 

Line.- — The line of the harpoon also has had its peculiar elaboration, 
answering to external exigencies and opportunities on the one hand, 
and to the ingenuity of the savage on the other. The Fuegian sinew 
thread, a few inches long, is far awa^^ from the Greenland whale line, 
and a series would take some such order as the following: 

1. The Fuegian t3^pe, short sinew cord tied around both the head 
and the shaft. 

2. The western Eskimo tN^pe, line tied to head and middle of shaft. 

3. Martingale type, attached to shaft in two places. 

4. With skin float, head fastened to line. 

5. Entirely separate, with ivory or bone toggles for fastening to the 
leader strap of the head and to the float. 

The harpoon line developed a deal of ingenuity in the textile art. 
Shredded sinew, thread, twine, and braid or sennit are in demand 
constantly. Rawhide line in great variety is also a necessity. 



^ Across Greenland, London, 1890, II, p. 260. 
NAT MUS 1900— -14 



206 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 




Here also originated the whole scheme of knots and splices, as will 

be abundantly shown in the illustrations that follow. The Eskimo 

made a ])utton or frog on the end of a rawhide line by cutting a slit 
. near the end and doul)ling the end back through 
the slit. They were extremely neat and skillful 
in fastening off lashings. Boas and Murdoch 
have given special attention to the Eskimo knots. 
With the lin(\ in its highest estate, go certain 
accessories, such as the eyelet, for making fast 
to a peg on the shaft (fig. 8), the line rack on the 
kaiak, and a multitude of ingenious inventions 
which Nelson calls ''detachers," since they make 
it possible in the frozen Arctic for the hunter to 
take his apparatus apart under the most trying 
circumstances. 

In order to prevent the hue from getting out of 
order, a swivel is sometimes used. One brought 
from Cumberland Sound by Kumlien and de- 
scribed by him is represented in fig. 4. There 
was a ball in the hollow body of this instrument, 
which could not be pulled through any of the 
openings. One line was fastened to this ball, 
passing through the central hole, and another 
one to the top of the swivel. A simpler pattern 

is represented by Boas,^ in which the ball in the socket would be a 

spherical knot on the end of the line. 

Floats. — The sealskin bag used as a float on the end of the line of 

the harpoon for killing whale and beluga is in Una- 

leet agau uk, bag; in Malemut Aygt nidv; the float, 

in both dialects, is Oa tuk. Nelson descri})es two 

sizes. The smaller one is fastened to the line after 

the beluga has become unable to struggle nmch. 

The large float which has tired the beluga is at the 

end of the line. This small one is gradually slipped 

nearer ])y the man in the kaiak until it is distant 

tt or 5 feet, when the coup is made and the prev 

secured. Boas describes and figures examples from 

Cumberland Sound (figs. 5,. 6). 

B}' far the largest floats in the U. S. National 

Museum collection are those of the Aht or Nutka 

whalers ofl' Vancouver Island. The skin of a seal 

is taken ofl' whole, making a float 8 feet long and 2 feet wide. 
Line rack. — Of the rack on the kaiak in front of the hunter (Unaleet, 

Achal ook; Malemut, A shal odk) for holding the rawhide line, Nelson 



Fig. 3. 

EYELET OX HARPOON LINE 

Cumberland Sound. 

Collected by Ludwig Kumlien 

Cat. No. 34123, U.S.N.M. 

After Franz Boas. 




Fig. 4. 
LINE SWIVEL. 

Cumberland Sound. 

Collected by Ludwig Kum. 

lien. 

Cat. No. 34121. U.S.N.M. 

Alter Franz Boas. 



Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 481. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



207 



says that the line is coiled on it with harpoon attached to one end and 
the large float to the other end, and lightly fastened back of the hunter. 
When the line has nearly run out the float is thrown overboard. The 
rack is fastened to the kaiak with grass strings, so that, should the line 




Fig. 5. 

SEALSKIN FLOAT. 

Cumberland Sound. 
Collected by W. A. Mintzer. Cat. No. : 
After Franz Boas. 



become entangled, the rack would be easih^ torn awa}^ without upset- 
ting the craft. (Plate l-i.) It would then act as an impediment to the 
progress of the animal. 






Fig. 6. 

MOUTHPIECES TO FJ-OATS. 

Cumberland Sound. 

Collected l)y W. A. Mintzer and Ludwig; Kumlien. Cat. Now. 29986, 34118, 34119. 34120. U.S.N.M. 
After Franz Boas. 

In the accompanying plate (after Nelson) will be seen a great number 
of harpoon parts just mentioned. (Plate 1.) 

16125. Small toggle harpoon head with stone blade and leader of rawhide done up 
on a short piece of wood. The cap belonging to this head is shown above. 
Nunivak Island. William H. Dall. 



208 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 

33465. Finger rei^t for harpoon, triangular in form and ornamented with a carving of 

a seal in low relief. Fastened on to a sliaft by means of a lashing through 

three perforations. 8t. Michael. E. W. Nelson. 
33()32. Toggle head of a walrus liarpoon of late pattern, since the carving is mechan- 
ical in outline.' Norton Sound. E. W. Nelson. 
33641. Finger rest for harpoon shaft in form of a bird's beak, fastened on to the shaft 

by a lashing through three perforations. Norton Sound. E. W. Nelson. 
36097. Foreshaft of seal harpoon, cylindrical in form, showing wedge-shaped notch 

and the method of attachment to the end of the wooden shaft. Big Lake. 

E. W. Nelson. 
37377. Toggle head of a walrus harpoon with stone blade, showing the method in 

which the leader of rawhide is attached to the loose shaft by means of sinew 

thread. Chalitmut. E. W. Nelson. 
3741 7. Foreshaft of bone carved in shape of an animal's head and showing the method 

of attaching the foreshaft to the wooden shaft. Anagogmut. E. W. Nelson. 
37671. Finger rest of bone, with triangular perforations for lashing to the wooden 

shaft. Kongigumogumut. E. W. Nelson. 
38529. Slate blade of harpoon head. Lower Yu^on. ¥j. W. Nelson. 
43461. Bone head of barbed harpoon for seals. Tang, wedge shaped; line hole, 

oblong; four barbs, all on one side. St. Michael. E. W. Nelson. 
43865. Finger rest for large seal spears. In form of a seal's head; hole for lashing, 

triangular. Unalakleet. E. W. Nelson. 
44077. Barbed head of large seal harpoon. Tang, wedge shaped; hole, circular; 

barbs, three on one side and two on the other. Mouth of Koyuk River. 

E. W. Nelson. 
44405. Ice pick of ivory for end of large harpoon. Fastened by lashings through 

four perforations. Cape Nome. E. W. Nelson. 
44421. Barbed head for seal harpoon. Line hole, oblong; barbs, two on one side and 

one on the other. Cape Nome. E. W. Nelson. 
44699. Toggle head of seal or walrus harpoon, complete, with slate blade. Sledge 

Island. E. W. Nelson. 
44703. Loose shaft of seal and walrus harpoon. Butt squared off and having a small 

spindle-shaped projection fitting in a socket on the top of the foreshaft. 

Sledge Island. E. W. Nelson. 
44746. Iron head of seal and walrus harpoon. Sledge Island. E. W. Nelson. 
44812. Finger rest for large harpoon. Sledge Island. E. W. Nelson. 

45170. Finger rest for large harpoon. Sledge Island. E. W. Nelson. 

45171. Finger rest for large harpoon. Sledge Island. E.W.Nelson. 
45173. Cord fastfener for large harpoon. Sledge Island. E. W. Nelson. 
48276. Barbed head for harpoon. Nunivak Island. E. W. Nelson. 

48293. Finger rest for large spear. In shape of a boat's rudder, set on by lashings 
around the shaft through three perforations in the rest. Nunivak Island. 
E. W. Nelson. 

48471. Toggle head for harpoon (toy). Kegiktowik. E.W.Nelson. 

48820. Slate blade of toggle harpoon head. Rasbonisky. F. W. Nelson. 

63334. Old barbed and toggle head, for seal, combined, showing the method of pro- 
viding shaft socket by lashing. St. Lawrence. E. W. Nelson. 

63497. Foreshaft of barbed harpoon for seals. It fits into a wedge-shapjd notch in 
the end of the shaft. St. Lawrence. E. W. Nelson. 

63842. Finger rest. Head and neck of seal carved oui from the material, probably 

antler. Attached by lashing to the thin, grafi-like portion to the shaft. 
Point Hope. E. W, Nelson. 

63843. Finger rest. Point Hope. E. W. Nelson. 
()3844. Finger rest, Point Hope. E. AV. Nelson. 

126812. Ice pick for harpoon. St. La.rrence. E. W. Nelson. 



Report of U. S. National Museum, 1900.— Mason. 



Plate 1. 




z 
o 
o 

Q. 
CC 
< -• 

X z 



ABORKUNAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 209 



ACCESSORIES TO THE nARPOON. 



Besides the hundred and one j>arts of the harpoon immediatel}^ 
attiiehed to it there are unlimited accessories which have been called 
into existence at its demands. The hunter has a peculiar costume 
which he puts on when he goes harpooning-. Certain kinds of food 
are demanded; a multitude of charms and lore are insepara])le from 
the implement. In addition, the hunter takes along several devices 
to gain information, to decoy the g*ame, and to add to his own com- 
fort. All about the American coast where great lish or mammals 
existed the water craft were improved immenseh'. The Nutka dug- 
out canoes and the Eskimo kaiak are unrivaled, and they are the 
ministers of the harpoon. In like manner the sled, the dog, the har- 
ness, the shifting tent owe their forms and usefulness to the ingenious 
mind which devised and perfected the harpoon, which is no doubt the 
most virile of all savage inventions. 

Sometimes a small implement is used in the hunt to indicate the 
approach of the seal. It is called qipekutang, and consists of a very thin 




Fig. 7. 

SEAL INDICATORS. 

Point Barrow, Alaska. 

Collected by P. H. Ray. Cat. No. 56507. U.S.N.M. 

After John Murdoch. 

rod with a knob or a knot at one end.^ It is stuck through the snow, 
the end passing into the water, the knob resting on the snow. As soon 
as the seal rises to blow, it strikes the rod, which, by its movements, 
warns the hunter. Generally it is made of whale\s bone. Sometimes 
a string .is attached to the knob and fastened b}^ a pin to the snow, as 
its movements are more easily detected than those of the knob. The 
natives are somewhat averse to using this implement, as it frequently 
scares the seals. ^ 

When watching for a seal at his breathing hole, the Point Barrow 
native inserts into the hole a rod of ivory. When the seal rises, it 
pushes up this rod and thus warns the hunter when to shoot or to har- 
poon ^ (fig. 7). 

The sealing stool is a small triangular plank with three short legs, 
on which a hunter squats when watching at a seal hole, where fre- 



^ Parrv: Second Voyage, II, p. 550, fig. 20. 

2 Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 478. 

■^Murdoch, Point Barrow Expedition, p. 255, fig. 255. 



210 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSKUM, 1900. 



queiitly he has to stand for hours mot 




Fig. S. 

SEALING STOOL. 

Point Barrow, Alaska. 

Collected by P. H. Ray. ("at. No. 89887. T'.S.N.M. 

After John Murdoch. 

and the float. A coUeetion of these fi 
an interesting study. The extreme 
cold of the region, stiffening the line 
and freezing the hands of the fisher- 
man, makes it necessary to have some 
device which renders the rapid ship- 
ping and unshipping of the line cer- 
tain and eas3\ In the example here 
shown the detacher is carved in the 
shape of a seal's head. The leader 
passes through the hole drilled in the 
neck of the animal, while the line to be 
attached is looped and pushed through 
the mouth of the seal, around a stud 
on top of the head, and hooked. While 
this attachment is secure enough where 
there is a steady strain, the hunter has 
only to push the loop backward, when 
it relieves itself from the button or stud 
and can easily be withdrawn. Especial 
attention is called in this example to 
the neatness with which the frapping 
is done on the rawhide thongs, the 
whale carved on the under side of the 



ionless on the ice.^ Murdoch 
makes the important state- 
ment that this device is 
not found elsewhere save 
at the Mackenzie mouth 
and in arctic Alaska (Rob- 
ert MacFarlane's notes). 
Egede describes and fig- 
ures a ' \sort of one-legged 
chair and a footstool." 
Also Cranz (fig. 81). 

Cat. No. 38751: (fig. 9) is 
an apparatus for joining 
the two parts of a har- 
poon line; it mav be the 
leader attached to the line 
hole through the head or 
it may be on an extra line 
used to lengthen the dis- 
tance between the head 

om different areas would form 




Fig. 9. 

LINE DETACHER. 

St. Michael, Alaska. 

Collected by E. W. Nelson. Cat. No. 387.54. 

U.S.N.M. 



1 Point Barrow Expedition, 1892, p. 255, fig. 256. 



AROHIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



211 




V 



object, the curved line or serrate ornament, the owner mark on the 
back of the head, and the existence of the dot and circle ornament for 
eyes and on the button or side. 

Figures 40 and 41, pages 144 and 145, in Nelson (1900), are good 
illustrations of this t3^pe. 

Cat. No. 45060 (tig. 10) in the U. S. National Museum is a seal 
decoy from Sledge Island, collected b}^ E. W. Nelson. It consists of 
a handle of pine wood rudel}^ carved at the butt end to resem])le the face 
of a seal, and at the other end into three prongs. Upon 
each one of these prongs is fitted a toe of a seal so that 
the three points will touch the same surface. Around 
each of these is wrapped, by half hitches, a continuous 
thread of sinew and loops passing around a jog or pro- 
jection on the end of a stud in the handle just where it 
is pronged. This stud, of walrus ivory, has carved at 
the other extremity the head 
of a seal, the eyes, ears, and 
nostrils indicated by insertions 
of black substance like whale- 
bone. The use of this, it is 
said by those who have trav- 
eled in Alaska, is to scratch 
upon the ice in order to imi- 
tate the noise made by the male 
seal and thereby attract his 
mate. On hearing the noise 
above, the seal that is under 
the ice comes to the ])reathing 
hole and is soon dispatched by 
the hunter. 

The ice scoop, an accessory 
to the harpoon, found all over 
the arctic regions, is shown 
in fig. 11, a and h. The first 
example, fig. lla^ is from the 
Amur region; lib shows a 

similar device from Cape Nome, Alaska, south of Bering Strait. After 
the seal is struck with the harpoon down through the small t)reath- 
ing hole, it is necessary to enlarge the opening in order to withdraw 
the body of the animal. This is done with the pick on the butt end of 
the harpoon. As soon as the opening is large enough the hunter pro- 
ceeds to remove the broken ice at once by means of a scoop, the essen- 
tial parts of which are the handle, the bow, and the webbing. In the 
example from Schrenk here figured the very primitive way of attach- 
ing the spoon to the handle is worthy of notice. The spoon is kite- 



Fig. 10. 

DECOY FOR SEAL. 

Sledge Island, Alaska. 
Collected by E. W. Nelson. Cat. No. 45060. U.S.N.M. 



212 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 190(). 



. # 



shaped in form, the butt ends crossing and lashed to the handle a little 
above the lower ends, which rest underneath a short bit oi wood or 
across the spoon at either end by means of a rawhide thong*. The 
examples of this apparatus are figured in Nelson, Murdoch, and Boas. 
Among the accessories to the harpoon, the throwing stick or board, 
called atlatl by the Mexicans, must not be omitted. True, the cun- 
ning device was used all around the 
Pacific Ocean and across the Arctic 
for projecting spears as well as har- 
poons, and there are other methods 
of using the harpoon efi'ectively; 
but the elaboration of the atlatl 
throughout was greatly stimulated 
by association with the harpoon. 
The proper discussion and illustra- 
tion of this accessory, however, 
would far exceed the limitations of 
this article, and will therefore be 
reserved for a separate paper. A 
map showing the distribution of the 
atlatl in the Western Hemisphere 
would ])e marked on Greenland, 
Labradoi*, Bafiin Land, Mackenzie 
River, all about Alaska to British 
Columbia, Santa Barbara, cliff 
dwellings of the Colorado, through- 
out Mexico, Central America, Flor- 
ida, Colombia, the Orinoco, and the 
Amazon on several of its great trib- 
utaries, especially in the Mato 
Grosso. 




SOUTH AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



Fig. 11. 

ICE SCOOPS. 

Amur River and Bristol Bay. 



Collected by H W. Nelson; a, after Schrenk; b. Cat 
No. 45409, U.S.N. M. 



The continent of South America 
was not favorable to the harpoon. 
Most of its shores descend at once 
into the inhospitable deep sea. Ex- 
cept at its narrow and bleak coast southward, animals best captured 
with the harpoon did not abound. Inland there were pampas and for- 
ests, better suited to bolas, spears, slings, blow tubes, and the bow. 
It is in the Straits of Magellan, on the west coast, and in the open 
waters of the great rivers that a rude barbed harpoon and excellent 
harpoon arrows existed. Nor can the thought be slighted that outside 
of the favored Cordilleras, the luxuriance of nature overpowered the 
inventive faculty, which indeed is developed among difficulties so long 



Report of U. S. National Museum, 1900.— Mason. 



Plate 2. 



i 1',^ 






I I 



!i 




^ 



'|||1P 



I 

' 1 

j I 

I I 
1 1 



FuEQiAN Barbed Harpoon Heads. 

Collected by United States Fish Commi.ssion steamer Albatross. 
Cat. Nos. 127566, 131217, 131218, 178805, U.S.N.M. 



AHORiaiNAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



213 




as there is hope, but g-ives way to despair when nature even })y her 
riches shuts the door against invention. This part 
of the South American Indian's equipment was not 
of a high order, since his patent which he received 
for his cunning was so meager. 

Fuegian type. — About the Straits of Magellan are 
three linguistic families of Indians — the Onan, the 
Alikulufan, and the Yahgan. The first named are 
believed to be closely related to their neighbors, the 
Patagonians of the mainland. The other two fam- 
ilies make canoes of bark and live on sea products. 
Their inventions, aside from their ingenious canoes, 
are not of a high order. Since the days of Magellan, 
1520, until now, they have been spectators of Cau- 
casian activities, yet they adhere to their ancient 
forms and are among the lowliest of the tribes now 
on the earth. 

In the Fuegian barbed harpoons the transition 
from the spear is immediate, for it is only a matter 
of a short piece of sinew string or leather thong- 
uniting the head with the shaft. If the barbed head 
of bone be firmly fixed in the split end of the shaft, 
the implement is a spear; if the barbed head fit 
loosely b}^ its butt into a socket or, what is really 
the case, into the riven end of the shaft, and is 
joined to the shaft bv a short cord or thong, as is 
shown in tig. 12 (Cat. No. 79091, U.S.N. M.), the 
implement is the most primitive of harpoons. The 
transition is not onl}^ immediate but easy. When 
the end of the shaft is merely split to hold the tang 
of the long bone spearhead, it is impossible to make 
a rigid joint by any amount of wrapping. 

In the examples studied for this paragraph, col- 
lected by the U. S. Fish Commission steamer Alba- 
tross., the spearheads have many serrate barbs on one 
edge of the blade, and the tangs, instead of being- 
smooth and tapering, are roughty notched to prevent 
the head from being drawn out of the end of the 
shaft (Plate 2). In like manner the harpoon heads of 
bone have tapering points of greater or less length, 
with two large barbs, one on each side, or one barb 
projecting near the base. In spears the tang is not 
fitted neatly into a socket at the end of the shaft, 
but the latter is merely split and bound with sinew 
or thong; but the open socket for the harpoon head is wrought with 



Fig. 12. 

FUEGIAN BARBED 

HARPOON. 

Collected by Thomas and 

Leslie Lee. Cat. No. 

79031. U.S.N.M. 



^14 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 

more care. The Fuegian harpoon is thrust with both hands or thrown. 
It has no hand rest on the shaft to make the blow more effective, nor 
did these natives have knowledo-e of the harpoon arrow or the throwing 
stick, a device prevalent in many other parts of America for propelling 
the harpoon. The shaft as now seen is a creditable part of the imple- 
ment, being often 12 feet long and cut out with eight sides rather than 
round. The thong also is carefully knotted to the shaft a few feet 
from the barbed head, its length nicely adjusted to the setting of the 
harpoon for action. 

Chilean type. — On the Atlantic slope from the Straits of Magellan 
to the mouth of the Rio Negro, the l^ow and arrow (formerly), the 
long-handled spear, but, more than all others, the different varieties 
of bolas, were the hunting implements. To ffnd the harpoon it will 
be necessar}^ to cross the Cordilleras and visit the archipelagos of the 
Pacific coast. Here amidst the greatest abundance, having little con- 
tact with Europeans, the tribes of Aucanian and those of unknown 
affinities plied a harpoon not nuich in advance of those of Fuegia (tig. 
13 6^). It is to all intents and purposes a good North American arrow, 
chipped head, foreshaft, lashing crossed over the barbs of the head, 
and conical base for making a joint with the shaft. 

Fig. 13, A and B represent barbed harpoon heads in the U. S. 
National Museum from Arica, Peru. The heads are of chipped stone 
set by a tang into a socket in the end of its foreshaft or tang and bound 
with tine string. The column of the foreshaft is cylindrical, terminating 
below in a bulb, which serves both to hold the connecting line and to 
make a loose joint with the shaft. 

In the Blake collections, Peabod}^ Museum, is a similar barbea har- 
poon from Chacota, Peru, with point or blade of stone, tang of wood, 
and with conical butt end to tit in a socket.^ Comparing these exam- 
ples with the Fuegian t3^pe. the great advantage which one people may 
have over another caused by differences of material is apparent. The 
Fuegian, in order to join the head with the shaft of the harpoon, 
knows nothing better than to split the front of the handle and make 
the joining as secure as possible by lashing with rawhide, or sinew 
cord, which shrinks in drjang. Soon, however, this becomes loose 
again, and makes it necessary to repeat the process of fastening. It 
is a poor joint at best. As soon as the tisherman, coming northward, 
discovers the tough and straight cane, a new device is possible, and a 
better joint. Indeed, nature bores the hole regular in form for the 
butt end of the harpoon head. By cutting the stem of the cane just 
above the joint an ideal socket is effected. When the harpoon head 
is set securely into this socket and the outside wrapped with stout 
thread, the best of joints is effected. The butt end of all South Ameri- 

' Eleventh Annual Report of the Peabody Museum, p. 290, fig. 15. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



215 



can harpoons, within the area of the cane, belong to the type here 
shown reoardless of tribe or location. 

In Stiibel, Reiss, and Koppel Kultur und Industrie Sudamerikani- 



n 




! i; 




ABODE 

Fig. 13. 

BARBED HARPOON HEADS. 

Chile and Peru. 
A-C. Cat. Nos. 1368,Wa and h, U.S.N.M.; D, Peabody Museum; E, Charles Read. 

scher Volker. is iig-ured a harpoon from Arica, Peru. It consists of a 
head of syenite and a tang of wood. Tlie stone head is barbed and 
the tang of wood is fastened with a seizing of woolen cord. At the 



216 REPORT OF NATIONAL MU8P:UM, 1900. 

lower end of the wooden tan^- there is a projection for a cord which 
fastened the head to the upper end of a shaft or reed cane. The lower 
end of the tang- is conical, to lit into the end of the cane. There is a 
rudeness about the . Peruvian and Chilean harpoon heads worth}^ of 
attention. The better classes of this ancient people were skillful in 
many arts. There is in these appliances of capture, therefore, evidence 
of a humble fishing- caste, or of a tribe not identical with Aymaras 
and Kechuas. The spirit of invention was not entirely wanting in 
this area, however, as I) and K^ fig. 1-^, show. The last named is taken 
from Charles Read's paper in the Journal of the Anthropological 
Institute (volume xix, page 60). Side barbs are set on the side of the 
wooden tang of the head, partly let in, partly cemented, and in one 
example served. All the elements here rudely put together will again 
appear on this same Pacific coast at its northern extremity in their 
latest elaboration. 

In the Hassler collection of the Field Columbian Museum are barbed 
harpoons from southern Brazil. The bone of an animal forms the point 
and a barbed piece of hard wood the tang of the head, which is attached 
by a short piece of rope to the end of the long shaft. In some exam- 
ples the ))one is socketed and set on the end of the tang; in others a 
spindle-shaped bone is lashed diagonally to the beveled end of the tang. 
Attention is here specially invited to the bone which forms the body 
and blade of this head, because it is an ideal, if not the real, beginning 
of all toggle heads of harpoons. A short piece of bone, conical in 
form, is cut out so as to be sharp in front and cup-shaped in the rear. 
If this is set on the end of a hard wood foreshaft and driven into the 
body of a fish or other animal it remains there and rankles. The arrow 
shaft is withdrawn, but if the bone be tied to the shaft it becomes a 
retriever. It toggles in the body of the game. The attachment of 
spurs at the base of this head brings about the made-up toggle head of 
the north Pacific coast. 

The turtle harpoon arrow in the Solimoens, Brazil, has a lancet- 
shaped ])oint of steel fitted into a peg, which enters the tip of the 
shaft. This head is secured to the shaft b}^ a twine of pineapple 
fiber, 80 to 40 yards long and neatly Avoujid around the shaft. When 
the ])la(le entei's the shell the head of the arrow pulls out and the ani- 
mal dives to the bottom, leaving the shaft floating. The Indian, on 
perceiving a movement in the Avater, shoots his arrow into the air and 
it never fails to pierce the shell of the submerged animal.^ 

The Amazon Indians hunt the manatee for food in small canoes and 
kill it with harpoons, the blades of which are made of shells.^ 

The Upper Shingu tribes hunted and fished with bow and arrow, 
though fishing was sparingly done in this way. The harpoon arrows 

^ Baten, On the Amazons, 1875, p. 293. 

■^Acuna, New Discovery, Hakluyt, No. 24, 1859, p. 69; Bates, loc. c-it., 1875, p. 245. 



Report of U. S. National Museum, 1900.— Mason. 



Plate 3, 




III 



1 




ft 



I '. 



Harpoon Arrow and Sheath, Venezuela. 
Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



217 



of the Bororo Indians ot* the headwaters of the Paraguay River, in 
southwestern Brazil, are used for capturing alligators and large iish. 
The shaft is of the Uba reed, and at the butt end has two whole feath- 
ers laid on flat. The head consists of a shaft of hard wood ai:)out 2 feet 
long, to which are fastened the point and bar!), made 
of a piece of bone or very hard wood, sharpened at 
both ends, and laid on the top of the foreshaft diag- 
onally so as to form the piercing portion in front 
and the hook in the rear. The barb is lashed on to 
the foreshaft by means of a twined string, the other 
end of which is attached to the shaft, so that when 
the head is drawn out the shaft itself serves as a buoy. 
For about 2 feet the outer end of the reed shaft is 
wrapped with the same cord that connects the reed 
with the shaft. The inner end of the foreshaft fits 
into the hole of the reed (fig. 11:). Length of this 
spear, 6 feet. It is pictured in Von den Steinen, 1891, 
page 181. Among the Bororo (Tupian famiU^) is to 
be found a modification of this type of harpoon in 
which the shaft is not fastened to the line but held in 
the hand of the fisherman, who dives after his game. 
A harpoon arrow of the Venezuelan Indians is 
shown in Plate 3. The specimen is in the nuiseum 
of the University of Pennsylvania. The shaft is of 
reed, without a joint. At the shaftment there are 
two half feathers set on radially and held in place by 
wrappings of black and white thread in alternate 
bands. In a few places the thread passes over the 
shaft of the quilU and elsewhere the bands of thread 
do not touch the feather and have nothing to do 
with the lashing. At the nock, a ball-like projection 
is formed by the wrapping of thread. A piece of 
hard wood is inserted in the notch to fit through the 
bowstring. At the front end of the shaft a similar 
object is wrapped around the end to strengthen the 
socket of the foreshaft, which is a reed of black palm 
about 8 inches in length, sharpened at its lower end, 
and driven into the reed. It tapers graduallv 
toward the fore end. where it fits into the head. 
The head consists of a barbed point of iron and 
a socket piece or a shank of wood, into which the iron is fitted. 
At the base of this shank is a short \vrapping of twine, mixed 
with gum, resembling a turk's-head knot. This acts as a stop to the 
line. The same wrapping extends from the line outward nearly to the 
barb on the point. The harpoon line, which is 10 feet in length, is 



Fig. 11. 
HARPOON ARROW. 

Bororo Indians, Brazil. 
After Von den Steinen. 



NAT MUS 1 DUO- 



IS 



218 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 

tied around the head at one end and at the top of the shaft at the other 
end. When this weapon is set ready for action, the barbed head is 
placed on the end of the foreshaft. The line having been wrapped 
neatly around the top of the shaft, almost to its end, a loop or slip-knot 
is formed at the last turn, and drawn tight. When the game is struck, 
the head is withdrawn, the slip-knot untied, the line unwound, and the 
heavy portion of the shaft drops into the water, the feather projects 
into the air, and the apparatus acts both as a drag and as a signal. 
Excepting the iron point, which might easily be replaced by one of 
bone, the whole apparatus is aboriginal, and the wide prevalence of 
this particular combination of parts leads to the belief that we have 
here an early and unchanged American harpoon arrow. It is interest- 
ing also from the point of view before mentioned, that it is a step in 
the progress of the toggle head. If a Columbia River Indian were to 
fasten a spur on the end of the cup-shaped socket, the combined bar])ed 
and toggle heads, to be more fully illustrated and described, would 
be realized. This form of harpoon head, in which the socket is on the 
movable part instead of being in the end of the shaft, is quite well 
diffused in the Amazon drainage and on the Pacific coast. It is not 
found in the shell heaps or mounds of eastern United States, but is 
common in western Canada and universal among the Eskimo. 

The harpoon arrows of the tribes in British Guiana are used for 
shooting fish, pacu {Pacii myletes), which abound at all seasons of the 
3^ear, according to Im Thurn, in most of the large rivers of Guiana. 
When the river is high and the w^ater is turbid with rain the pacu 
are distributed equally in all parts of the stream and are almost invis- 
ible. AVhen, however, in the dr}^ season, the river is low and the 
water clear, when the rocks which form the rapids are partially 
uncovered, and the ''pacu grass," a small water plant (Lacis), Avhich 
clothes these rocks, comes into flower, then the pacu collect at the 
falls to feed on the leaves. Large numbers of Indians then camp at 
the sides of the falls to shoot these fish. Such a scene is highly pic- 
turesque. The place is generally a wide extent of river bed, apparently 
inclosed by the forested banks, and entireh^ occupied by a curious 
confusion of rocks and white, rushing water. On a rock in the midst 
of, and almost covered by the tumbling water, stands an Indian, his 
feet crushing the delicate, star shaped, pink flowers of the lacis, and 
every muscle in his naked, cinnamon-colored body bearing witness to 
the intensity of his watch. His bow is half drawn, the arrow is in 
position, but its point rests idly on the rocks. The water is rushing 
and tumbling so wildly that an unpracticed eye can see nothing below 
its surface. But the Indian sees. Quickly the bow is raised, the aim 
is taken, the arrow flies, and its shaft is there, dancing and tumbling 
in the water, carried here and there l)y the terrified rusnes of an 
unseen pacu. in the bodv of which the arrowhead is embedded. But 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 219 

the IImo not only connects {irrowhead ;ind arroAV shaft, but its other 
end is held firmly in the hands of the Indian, who now easily hauls 
the tish on to the rock. Sometimes, instead of waiting on a rock, in 
his eagerness he stands in the midst of the almost overwhelming rush 
of the water, stooping, the better to resist its force. In either case, 
if he is skillful, he gets a large number of fish. Im Thurn saw 15 
pacu, averaging about T or 8 pounds in weight, shot by one man in 
twenty minutes. When enough have been taken the Indian loads 
his canoe and returns to his temporary camp. The fish are then cut 
open and cleaned, their sides are slit again and again, salt is rubbed 
in, and they are put on the rocks to dry in the sun. 

It is not, however, only in the falls that the Indian shoots fish, though 
he rarel}^ gets pacu elsewhere. In the smooth reaches of the river he 
shoots others of various kinds. Indeed, he can almost always and every- 
where find fish to shoot, and he seldom fails to hit them when they are 
once seen. When the water is smooth two other fish arrows are used. 
Of these one^ differs from the harpoon before mentioned in that a 
short line connects only the head — which in this case also is slipped 
on to the shaft- — and the shaft, instead of being carried on the arm of 
the shooter. The struggles of the fish when hit inmiediately cause 
the shaft to slip out of the head, and the former, which is very long 
and light, floats on the top of the water, but remains connected with 
the fish by the line, and so serves as a buoy and marks the position of 
the fish.^ 

NORTH AMERICAN HARPOONS. 

Between the northern and the southern continents of the Western 
Hemisphere the mode of communication was by land or by Avater. 
By land the dividing line between North and South America was very 
near the route of the projected Nicaraguan Canal. The gold-working 
Chibchas of British Columbia had as their northern boundary the San 
Juan River. By water there was no partition l^etween the continents. 
The Caribian and the Arawakan tribes encountered by Spanish explor- 
ers all about the Caribbean Sea were also found away southward in the 
Orinoco drainage and farther. There will be no surprise, therefore, 
on finding the same devices of capture widely distributed. The same 
animal will be killed in many places with smiilar harpoons, because 
in the struggle for survival among weapons this or that form proved 
the fittest; also because of that subtle, imaginary kinship between men 
and animals of prey which encourages the man to follow animals of 
particular species. The l)arbed head, with tangfittmg into a socket at 
the end of the shaft, and the socketed head, whose cup-shaped base fits 
on to a pointed foreshaft, continue to exist with little change until 

^ Im Thurn, Among the Indians of British Guiana, 1883, p. 235, fig. 96. 
ndem., pp. 235-237. 



220 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 

Oilifonihi is rciiched. The barbed harpoon head with eup-shaped base 
there takes on spurs and becomes a toggle head without barbs. 

Of harpoons on the Mosquito coast of Nicaragua and Honduras 
Squier says: 

Tlie women were left on the beach and three men apportioned to each boat— a pad- 
dler, a torch bearer, and a striker. Torches made of pine spUnters; spears of two 
kinds— one {sinnock) fixed by a shank at the end of along, light pole and kept in the 
hand; the other {waisko-dusa) shorter, staff hollow, iron-barbed head, fastened to 
a line passing through rings by the side of the shaft, wound to a light wood float. 
When thrown the head remains in the fish, the line unwinds, the float rises to the 
surface to be seized by the fisherman, who hauls in his fish at leisure.^ 

The same author says that the Mosquito Indians capture thousands 
of turtles with harpoons. 

The Ulva Indians, of Bluefields Lagoon, pursue the manatee. One 
man sits in the stern of a flat-bottomed dugout (pitpan) to steer, one 
crouches in the bow with a harpoon, the rest kneel on the bottom, 
lances in hand. The boat is covered with ])oughs to resemble floating 
trees. The man at the bow launches his harpoon, the animal makes 
a plunge, the boughs are thrown overboard, and the lance men make 
ready. The bowsman gradually hauls in his line and the animal, after 
some maneuvering, comes to the surface, where it is stabbed with a 
lance. After a series of struggles it is secured.' These processes of 
paddling, harpooning, throwing the boughs overboard, hauling in the 
line, and stabbing with the lance may be carefully noted, in prospect 
of coming descriptions relating to harpoon work by the Eskimo. 

Clavigero describes the Mexican tlacochtli or dart, a small lance of 
otalli or some other strong wood, the point of which was hardened by 
fire or shod with copper, or itzli, or bone, and many of them had three 
points. The Mexicans fixed a string to their darts in order to pull 
them back again. This weapon was especially dreaded by the Span- 
iards.' The line affixed to the darts is a harpoon characteristic. The 
three-pronged barbed harpoon head is also to be seen on Lake Patz- 

cuaro at present. 

A turtle harpoon* of the Seri Indians of Tiburon Island, mthe (jult 
of California and the mainland adjoining, is shown in tig. 15. It com- 
prises a point 3 or 4 inches long, made from a nail or bit of stout wire, 
rudely sharpened by hammering the tip (cold) between cobbles, and 
dislodging the loosened scales and splinters by thrusts and twirhngs 
in the ground; this is set firmly and cemented with mesquite gum into 
a foreshaf t of hard wood, usually -I or 5 inches long, notched to receive 
a cord and rounded at the inner end. This rounded end tits into a 
socket of the main shaft, which may be eit her a cane stalk or a section 

' E. G. Squier, Mosquito Shore, London, 1856, p. 74. 

2 idem., p. 104. 

3 History of Mexico, H, Philadelphia, 1817, p. 166. 

nV J McGee, Seventeenth Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (1898), p. 187. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 221 

of mesquite root, while a stout cord is firmlj^ knotted about the tang 
of the head and either attached to the outer end of the main shaft or 
carried in the hand of the user. The shaft is usuall}^ 10 or 12 feet 
long, with the socket in the larger end, and is manipulated by a fisher- 
man sitting or standing on his balsa. On catching sight of a turtle 
h'ing in the water, he approaches stealthily, preferabh^ from the rear, 
yet in such wise as not to cast a frightening shadow, sets the foreshaft 
in place, guides the point close to the victim, and then by a quick 
thrust drives the metal through the shell. The resistance between the 
turtle shell and the metal holds the point in place, and although the 
head is jerked out at the first movement of the animal, the cord pre- 
vents escape; and after partial tiring, the turtle is either drowned or 
driven ashore, or else lifted on the craft. Dr. McGee quotes the fol- 
lowing minute account of Seri turtle capture: ^ 

An Indian paddles himself from the shore on one of these by means of a long 
elastic pole of about 12 or 14 feet in length, the wood of which is the root of a thorn 
called mesquite, growing near the coast; and although the branches of this tree are 
extremely brittle, the underground roots are as pliable as whalebone and nearly as 
dark in color. At one end of this pole there is a hole an inch deep, into which is 
inserted another bit of wood in shape like an acorn, having a square bit of iron 4 
inches long fastened to it, the other end of the tree being pointed. Both the ball 
and cup are first moistened and then tightly inserted one within the other. Fastened 
to the iron is a cord of very considerable length, which is brought up along the pole, 
and both are held in the left hand of the Indian. So securely is the nail thus iixed 
in the pole that although the latter is used as a paddle it does not fall out. 

A turtle is a very lethargic animal, and may frequently be surprised in its watery 
slumbers. The balsa is placed nearly perpendicularly over one of these unsuspect-. 
ing sleepers, when the fisherman, softly sliding the pole through the water in the 
direction of the animal till within a foot or two of it, suddenly plunges the iron into 
its back. No sooner does the creature feel itself transfixed than it swims hastily 
forward and endeavors to liberate itself. The slightest motion of the turtle displaces 
the iron point from the long pole, which would otherwise be inevitably broken and 
the turtle w^ould as certainly be lost; but in the manner here described it is held by 
the cord fastened on to the iron which has penetrated its back, till, after it has suffi- 
ciently exhausted its strength, it is hoisted on board the canoe by the fisherman, who 
proceeds to the shore in order to dispose of his prize. 

A barbed head, with wooden shaft, together forming a turtle spear- 
head, is shown in fig. 16, by McGee (1898. p. 193). 

The onl}^ approach to the harpoon type in all the Pueblo region is 
an insignificant apparatus for capturing vermin. But the cliff dwell- 
ers had the throwing stick, and a spear with a head of stone set on a 
tjing of wood conical at its inner end. like so many found in Peru 
and Chile. The Yokut Indians (Mariposan family) on Tulare Lake, 
California, are said by Powers to erect ])rushwood shelters over the 
water, in which the Indian lies flat on his belly peering down through 
a hole.'^ When a fish passes under, he strikes it with his two-pronged 

1 Hardy's Travels, 1829, p. 296. 

^Stephen Powers, Tribes of California, 1877, p. 376. 



222 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 










harpoon (1877, p. 87H). No other reo-ion in America ilhistrates more 
aptly what has })een previoush' said about the dependence of culture- 
progress on the l)ount3" of nature. The Tulare women are among 
the most skillful ba^^ket makers in the world, and their wai-e is sought 
far and wide. The material is at hand. But the Tulare men have 
reduced the hai-poon to its lowest terms, for two reasons^ — the animals 

requiring a better perfected implement are 
not at hand, and the materials for con- 
structing the weapon are not forthcoming. 
The Indians of the Sacramento Valley, 
in California, not being subjected to the 
prohibition of the game laws, are allowed 
to capture game at any season of the 3^ear, 
,. and when the salmon are in the river to 
f-^ I spawn they take them by means of toggle 
harpoons, one of which is nearly 25 feet in 
length. 

The Sacramento near its head is very 
swift, and in its passage across different 
ledges of various degrees of softness exca- 
vates large pools or holes in its bed, each 
having a small fall, and there is a rapid 
be3^ond. The water in these holes, which 
are often very large, is comparativeh^ still, 
and they make welcome resting places for 
the tired salmon before thev attempt the 
passage of the rapid above. The water is 
beautifullv cold and clear, and the fish can 
be seen crowding together on the bottom. 
The Indians repair to one of these holes to 
the number of twent}^ or more. Some sta- 
tion themselves at the rapids above and 
below; others wade out to an isolated rock. 
Fig. 15. or a log projecting into the stream. All 

TURTLE HARPoox. hoUl thclr harpoous in readiness, and at a 

seri Indians. signal f rom the leader strike. At the first 

collections of tlu' Bureau of Ethiiologv. i u i. U 4- Xi 1 

After w J MoGee. ousuiught cach uianagcs to secure a lish, 

which is detached from the harpoon head 
and thrown on the bank. The harpoons, having toggles of steel which 
become di^tached from the stock when they enter the fish, and being- 
attached to the shaft by cords, turn fiat against the fish's side and make 
escape impossil)le when the salmon is pierced through. Sometimes 
three or four hundred are thus harpooned from one pool. ^ The Wintun 




1 Hallock, Forest and Stream, VI, June 1, 1876. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



223 



Indian ties two poles together near one end, sets them in deep water 
near the shore, the bottoms a few feet apart; on this he sets a log, one 
end resting on the shore. From this fishing station he harpoons the 
black-backed salmon. The shaft is often 15 feet long; the head, a 
joint of deer's bone, is 3 inches long, with socket to fit 
on the end of the foreshaft and line tied about its mid- 
dle. This head is driven quite through the fish and 
toggles on the other side. The reader can not fail to 
recall the toggle heads of bone in the heart of Brazil. 
The Yurok also spear salmon from booths with tog- 
gle harpoons.^ The AVintuns be- 
long to Powell's Copehan family. 
They are skillful arrow makers 
and their women dainty weavers 
of twined basketry. But the 
abundance of the game as well as 
its accessibility have acted here, 
as in all other places, to deter the 
inventive faculty. The thrusting 
of a toggle quite through a fish 
was indeed an efi'ective mode of 
capture, but it did little to elevate 
the mind of the captor. 

The head of the harpoon used 
b}^ the Nacum Indians of Califor- 
nia was made of deer's horn and 
was about 2 inches long, with a 
socket on one side that fitted into 
the pole. When a fish was struck 
the point left the pole, to which it 
was attached by a sinew a foot or 
more long. It has been observed 
that the toggle harpoon so well 
known on the Pacific coast of the United States 
north of San Francisco, as well as British Colum- 
bia and Alaska, made no advances as an inven- 
tion. The Nacum Indians are too far inland to 
have had the stimulus for improving an appara- 
tu which demands sea room for development. 
The Hupa and Humboldt Bay Indians con- 
struct the toggle heads of their salmon harpoons as follows: A point 
of antler, bone, or metal from 2i to 3^ inches in length, more or less 
flattened and sharp at the tips, is armed at its lower extremity with 



Fig. 16. 

BARBED HARPOON 
HEAD. 

Seri Indians. 
Collections* of the 
Bureau of Ethnol- 
ogy. 
After W J McGee. 




Fig. 17. 
TOGGLE HARPOON. 

Hupa Indians, California. 

Collected by P. H. Ray. Cat. Nc 

126525, U.S.N. M. 



^ Stephen Powers, Tribes of California, 1877. See his index, under tishing. 



224 REPORT OK NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 

two bar}),s laid alongside, lashed down, and covorod with pitch. (Fio-. 
IT.) In the same lashing is included one end of the leader, a short 
strap of deer rawhide. Into a slit at the other end is spliced the line, 
a piece of rope from I to 3 feet long, attached at its opposite end to 
the side of the shaft. Some spears have two or more prongs, each 
armed with one of these toggle heads. When the fish is struck its 
struggles detach the toggle head and it is retrieved by means of the 
line and pole. Toggle heads of similar type are in use among all the 
salmon-eating Indians of northwest California.^ 

In the figure shown will be seen the transition of the rankling arrow 
head of South America into a toggle head. There must be point, barbs, 
or spurs, line attached between ends, and socket in every harpoon. 
In this noteworth}^ type the point and the flukes or barbs are separate, 
and the socket is ingeniously effected by the combination of point, 
spurs, and rawhide leader. 

The spring salmon, says Gibbs, are taken on the rivers Sacramento, . 
Klamath, Columbia, and Kwinaiutl with a harpoon, the points or 
barbs attached loosely by a thong, so as to give pla}^ to the flsh. On 
some of the rivers, where the depth permits, weirs are built to stop 
their ascent.^ 

The relationship of weirs, dams, and stops of various kinds with the 
harpoon ma}^ be mentioned in this connection, since the California 
and Oregon tribes, barred out from ocean fishing b}^ absence of archi- 
pelagoes, were compelled to invent equivalents. The old-time harpoon 
was even then adequate, but engineering schemes were stimulated and. 
so the intellect was quickened. The cooperative results in dam build- 
ing, strengthening as they did the social tie, are not to be despised. 
Indeed, Powers, who knew those tribes half a century ago, has much 
to say about their manliness and resource, both in fishing and hunting. 
The same will be found true not only on the Atlantic side of the United 
States but on both sides of South America. 

It must not be overlooked that the Pacific Ocean all along the 
Mexican and Californian coast was no friend to the canoe. Pishing 
was done inland. The coastal plain, indeed, was the pasture land of 
vast marine herds that needed no shepherds, but at the proper season 
they rounded themselves up and proceeded into the various open 
streams to their spawning grounds, where they were slaughtered with- 
out mercy and in such way as to awaken little thought in the minds of 
their captors. 

Cat. No. 131358 in the U. S. National Museum is a barbed head of 
a harpoon from the Nal-tunne-tunne Indians, Oregon, collected by Kev. 
J. Owen Dorsey, consisting of an iron arrow head with long sharp })arbs 
on each side and a wooden shank barb piece having two unilateral 

1 Smithsonian Report, 1886, Pt. I, p. 224, pi. xix, fig. 80. 

2 George Gibbs, Contributions to North American Ethnology, 1877, I, p. 195. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



225 



flukes (fig. 18). On this wooden shank, the butt end of which fits loosely 
into the socket of the shaft, is a projection to hold the string connecting- 
head and shaft. This tribe of Indians belong, as their name shows, to 
the Dene or Tinne Indians, w^hose home is in central Alaska and the 
western portion of the Dominion of Canada. This Athapascan family 
is represented on the Pacific coast also by the Hupa, Wailaki, Saiaz, 
and many other tribes given by Powell (1891, p. 55). The time of 
their migration is not known, but extensive movements have taken 
place since the coming of the whites. They have added nothing to 
the inventions of the locality. The barbed harpoon 
blade, with barbs also on its shank, is widespread. 

Sixty years ago Wilkes described harpooning at Walla 
Walla, on the Columbia River, as very much like that 
at Willamette Falls, except there is no necessity for 
planks to stand on. The Indians use hooks and spears 
attached to long poles, both of which are made to 
unship readily and are attached to the pole by a line 
4 feet below its upper end. If the hook were made 
permanently fast to» the end of the pole, it would be 
liable to break and the large fish more difiicult to take. 
The Indians are seen standing along the walls of the 
canals in great numbers fishing. It is not uncommon 
for them to take twenty or twenty-five salmon in an 
hour.^ Wilkes brought home one of their harpoon 
heads, which is combined barbed and toggle, made up 
as follows: The head is of iron, triangular in shape, 
with a large barb on one side. The shank is set in 
betw^een two pieces of bone, which serve three pur- 
poses, namely, to hold the shank firmly, to become two 
spurs at their outer ends, and to form a socket for the 
end of the shaft by the hollow betv^een them. The 
line or leader is laid on the joint between them and the 
whole lashed securel}^ together and dipped into hot pitch, 
of many strand braid. 

One of the oldest pieces in the U. S. National Museum, Cat. No. 
1-139, collected by Lieutenant Whipple, is of similar type, only there 
is not a bit of iron about it. So far as its materials and form are con- 
cerned, it might have come down from aboriginal times. The blade is 
of bone, having two large flukes or barbs on one side cut out. In this 
example also the spurs at the butt end, which form the toggle, are of 
bone. The leader joining the head to the shaft is a strap of rawhide. 
The blade, spurs, and line or leader are neatly joined together with 
thread and pitch, so as to provide a socket for the end of the shaft. 



1 

Fig. 18. 

BARBED HARPOON 
HEAD. 

Naltiinne Indians, 
Oregon. 

Collected by J. Owen 
Dorsey. Cat. No- 
131.:558. U.S.N.M. 

The line is 



^Charles Wilkes, Exploring Expedition, IV, p. 384. 



226 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



Those who understand the ditticidtios which beset the savage artisan 
in making- a good joint will appreciate this efficient combination. 

The Twana Indians, of Washington State, make one kind of salmon 
hook of a straight piece of steel about 6 inches long, and sharp. On 
each side of it pieces of bone are tied. A line is attached and also a 
pole 15 or 20 feet long, in such a way that by means of the pole it may 
be driven into the tish, the pole drawn out, and the hook remain, held 
by the string, when it is drawn in.^ 

They (the Twana) sometimes use harpoons for seal fishing. The 
point is of iron, and the spear and line used as with the salmon hook 
just described.' 

The shaft of the Quinaielt salmon harpoon is made of cedar, the fork 
of the wood of the salmon berry; the toggle heads of wood or metal. 




Fig. 19. 

SALMON SPEAR. 

Quinaielt Indians, Washington. 
Collected by C. AVilloughby. 

The loop of cord, which is 16 feet long, is for the left hand. The 
length of the spear is nearly 16 feet. This spear is used on the bar of 
the river at low water. ^ This most interesting specimen recalls the 
heart of Brazil. There a short piece of monkey's bone was pointed in 
front, while nature formed the socket at the base to fit over the fore- 
shaft. In the Quinaielt specimen the monkey bone is replaced by a 
combination of bone and metal, the cup-shaped cavity at the base fits 
also over the foreshaft, but a short line or leader passes from the mid- 
dle of the head to the fore end of the shaft. This is a full-fledged 
toggle harpoon of a primitive type (fig. 19). 

The Indians of Neah Harl)or, says Wilkes, capture the whale wuth a 
buoy made of a seal's skin, which is blown up after the manner of blad- 
der, forming a large o})long float. These floats are tt feet long by 18 
inches or 2 feet in diameter, and are made fast by a rope to the harpoon 
or spear which is thrown at the w hale, and becoming fastened to it pre- 



^M. Eells, Hayden's Bulletin, 1877, 

MdtMii., p. 80. 

^Siuithsoiiian Reixjit, ISSG, I't. 1, p 



pp. 3, 68, 78, 79, 81. 
271, fig. 4. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 227 

vent its diving down to any great depth. After having a number of 
these joined to it the animal is unable to quit the surface and is tinally 
captured. 

All those whose sealskin floats are attached to the animal now divide 
the booty. Those who are entitled to a share are easily known, for 
each float has a diflerent pattern printed upon it.^ 

From Vancouver Island around the interminable coasts of North 
America to eastern Greenland the float is only in a few places absent 
from the harpoon in some form. It ma}^ be, as in this example, the 
hide of an immense seal, perhaps of a smaller seal, elsewhere a bladder 
or intestine inflated. On the coast of British Columbia, in the absence 
of sealskins, the unconquerable genius of invention substitutes a large 
bag or wallet of cedar bark, and the Labrador Eskimo attaches a ])it 
of plank to the butt end of his harpoon shaft. The motive is the same. 
A huge animal, to be captured, must not onl}^ be stabbed, but held 
back by an unwearying device which takes the place of the hunter's 
hand and arm. 

The Makah, living on the northwestern point of Washington State, 
pursue the whale in their dugout canoes. On one occasion, savs 
George Gibbs, a canoe was gone Ave days. Their tackle ccfnsists of a 
harpoon, the point formerlv edged with shell, now usualh' with cop- 
per, very tirmly secured to a line and attached lightly to a shaft about 
15 feet long, to which also the line is made fast; a sealskin float is 
attached to another line and serves to buoy the whale when struck. 
The scene of the capture is described by eyewitnesses as very excit- 
ing, ten canoes being sometimes engaged, the crews yelling and dash- 
ing their paddles with frantic eagerness. When taken, the whale, 
buoyed up with floats, is towed in triumph to the village and cut up.^ 

The Makahs belong to the Wakashan family, whose chief abode is 
on the outer side of Vancouver Island. Thev are the Nutkas of Cap- 
tain Cook and of the early explorers. But in this connection they are 
at the gatewa}^ of the North Pacitic archipelago, where, after a lone- 
some search stretching from Magellan Straits, the student encounters 
the (yaribs of the west. One after another Wakashan, Salishan, Hai- 
dah, or Skiddegatan and Tlinket, or Koloschan come out to meet him 
in their graceful dugouts of cedar. 

The Makah whaling harpoon consists of a barbed head, to which is 
attached a rope or lanyard, always of the same length, about 5 fathoms, 
or 30 feet. This lanyard is made of whale's sinews twisted into a rope 
a})out an inch and a half in circumference and covered with twine 
wound around it very tighth\ called by sailors '^serving.'' 

The harpoon head is a flat piece of iron or copper, usually a saw 
blade or a piece of sheet copper, to which a couple of })arbs made of 

^Charles Wilkes, Exploring Expedition, IV, p. 486. 

■''George Gibbs, Gontribntions to ^^ortb American Ethnology, 1877, I, p. 175. 



228 



•REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



elk's or deer's horn are secured, and the whole covered with a coating 
of spruce gum. Formerly the blades were of mussel shell. The 
shaft is made of yew. in two pieces, which are joined in the middle 
by a ver}^ neat scavf. tirmly secured by a narrow strip of bark wound 
round it very tightly. The length is 18 feet; thickest in the renter, 
where it is joined together, and tapering thence to both ends. To be 
used, the stall' is inserted into the barbed head, and the end of the lan- 
yard made fast to a buo\% which is simply a seal skin taken from the 
animal whole, the hair being left inward. The apertures of the head, 
feet, and tail are tied up air-tight, and the skin is inflated like a blad- 
der. One example collected by Swan is 3 feet long (lig. 20). 




Fig. 20. 

TOGGLE HEAD AND LINE. 

Makah Indians, Washington. 
Collected by Janies G. Swan. 



When the harpoon is driven into a whale the barb and buoy remain 
fastened to it, but the staff comes out, and is taken into the canoe. 
The harpoon w^hich is throw^n into the head of the whale has but one 
buoy attached; but those thrown into the body have as many as can 
be conveniently tied on; and. when a number of canoes join in the 
attack, it is not unusual for from thirty to forty of these buoys to be 
made fast to the whale, which, of course, can not sink and is easily dis- 
patched by their spears and lances. The buoys are fastened together 
by means of a stout line made of spruce roots, first slightly roasted in 
hot ashes, then split wdth knives into fine fibers, and finally twisted 
into ropes, which are very strong and durable. These ropes are also 
used for towing the dead whale to the shore. ^ 

1 James G. Swan, Smithsonian Contributions, XVI, pp. 19-21. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 229 

The Makahs, according to Swan, are not active in vocations or pur- 
suits other than fishing and whaling, and obtain some of their supplies 
by barter from neighboring tribes and white men. Thev devote very 
little time to agricultural pursuits or to the capture of land animals, 
but excel in the management of canoes, making long voyages from 
land for fish, and fearlessly attacking the whale. They manufacture 
their own fishing apparatus, and take especial pains with their har- 
poons and lances, for which instruments they have the greatest regard. 
The principal implements used by the Makah whalers are harpoons, 
lances, ropes, and buoys. The harpoon heads were formerly made of 
shell, but at present are of sheet copper or steel, with barbs of 
elk or deer horn, tightly seized to the blades b}^ cords or strips of 
bark, the whole being covered with spruce gum. The lanyards attached 
to the harpoon are made of the sinew of the whale twisted into a rope 
and served with fibers of nettle. The lances are of metal, wdth sockets 
for the ends of the poles. The poles for the harpoons and lances are 




Fig. 21. 

SEALSKIN FLOAT. 

Makah Indians, Washington. 
Collected bj' James G. Swan. 

heavy and unwieldy, but durable and strong. The buoys are of 
sealskin with the hair inside, inflated Avhen used, and attached to the 
harpoon lanyards. These buoys are used for the double purpose of 
impeding the progress of the whale, so as to enable the Indians to kill 
it, and to prevent the animal from sinking when dead. 

All whaling implements which have been used in the capture are 
regarded with especial favor and handed down from generation to 
generation, and it is deemed unlucky to part with them. These Indians 
did not acquire the art of w^haling from white men, and still employ 
the apparatus and processes which have come to them through count- 
less generations. One point deserves especial consideration. The 
process of wrapping their harpoon lan3^ards. commonly known as 
"serving," has been in use by all seafaring men for a number of 
years. The Makah Indian has his serving stick and mallet, maiui- 
factures his twine from the fibers of the nettle, and '^ serves" his lines 
as neatly as do the fishermen of the Eastern coast, and it is said they 
were familiar with the process before the advent of the whites.^ 



James G. Swan, Indians of Cape Flatterv. 



230 REPORT OF 

The. iiiiploineiits used by the Makah Indians for catching sahnon were 
a hook and a spear. The former is in size as large as a shark hook, 
having a socket at one end formed of wood. These hooks are made 
by the Indians f rom.liles and rasps, which they purchase of the traders, 
and are forged into shape with ingenuity and skill. The socket is 
made from the wild raspberry bush (Rnhvi< spectabUs)^ which, having 
a pith in its center, is easily worked and is very strong. This socket 
is formed of two parts, firmly secured to the hook by means of twine, 
and the whole covered with a coat of pitch. Attached to this hook is 
a strong cord about 8 feet long, A staff or pole from 18 to 20 feet 
long, made from fir, is used, one end of which is fitted to the socket in 
the hook, into which it is thrust, and the cord firmly tied to the pole. 
When the hook is fastened into a salmon it slips off' the pole and the 
fish is held by the cord, which enables it to perform its antics without 
breaking the staff, which it would be sure to do if the hook were firmly 
fastened.^ 

Giglioli figures a barbed harpoon head (Kaheita), made of whale's 
bone, brought from Nutka by Captain Cook, and now in the Natural 
History Museum of Florence. It has two barbs on one side and is 
attached to a line 10 mm. thick, served with twine. ^ This most inter- 
esting object, 10 inches long, reduces the harpoon head to its lowest 
terms. It reminds the student of the Fuegian type, or, better, of the 
universal American fundamental barbed type. At the base or joint — 
and this is one of the crucial points for invention— there is merely 
the rudest kind of pivot to fit into the socket at the end of the 
shaft. There is no perforation, or even bulb, to hold the line. The 
shank is simply hacked to make it rough. Some old pieces in the 
U. S. National Museum, of bone, antler, iron, and copper, collected by 
Gibbs, McLean, and Fisher, have from one to four barbs on one side, 
and have line holes or projections for the end of the connecting line. 

Ellis says that the Nutka (Wakashan) Indians had two kinds of 
harpoons — one of bone, the other of shell. The former — that is, the 
barbed head — is H inches long, pointed, having barbs on one side. Of 
the one with the shell l)lade, the butt end is ''so contrived by means 
of a socket as to fix upon a pole 10 feet in length. The shaft is forked 
at the end, so that two pieces of the bone are to be fixed on at the 
same time.'' To the shank of the barb a strong line is attached, to the 
other end of which is fastened a seal skin, blown up. The float is said 
to prevent the animal from keeping under water. It was dispatched 
with the lance.' This corresponds precisely with the specimens in 
the National Museum collected by Swan in recent times. In one of 
his examples the mussel shell, ground to a razor edge, forms the 



^ James G. Swan, North we>st Coast, New York, 1857, pp. 40 and 41. 

^ Appnnti intorno a<l una collezione, etc., Florence, 1895, p. 131, pi. iii. 

' Ellis, An Authentic Narrative, I, p. 221. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 231 

blade, and it is so neatly fitted })etween the spurs foi-niing- the toggle 
and covered with pitch as to make a sure and efficient weapon. All 
that the iron did later on was to replace the rather brittle edge of 
shell, without modifying any other portions of the intricate appa- 
ratus. 

Marchand's account of the harpoon in Barclay Sound, west side of 
Vancouver Island, is here given. The strong lance, which may be 
called their unerring lance, is intended for striking the whale when he 
presents himself on the surface of the water, and never does an Ameri- 
can fail to wound him at the first stroke. Instantly the slighter lances 
are employed for darting the harpoons, to each of which is fastened 
one of the long pieces of rope. The other end of the line is fixed to 
one of those large bladders filled with air. This sort of balloons, float- 
ing on the water, cease not to indicate the place Avhere to find the 
whale, dead or wounded, that has carried with him a harpoon, and 
the fishermen, directed by this signal, follow him up and celebrate by 
songs of joy their victory and conquest. But the most difficult is not, 
undoubtedly, to deprive the monster of life. It remains for them to 
get possession of him, and it would never be believed, if we were not 
assured of the fact, that with ^kifi's so slight and ticklish as canoes 
hollowed out of the trunk of a tree a few men should succeed in 
dragging the space of -I or 5 leagues an enormous mass and contrive to 
run it on shore on a beach, where they can cut it up.^ A glimpse at 
the ethnographic chart of North America shows that the Aht or Nutka 
division of the Wakashan family occupies the western portion of Van- 
couver Island, while the coast of British Columbia belongs to the 
Haeltzukan branch, as shown by Boas. The same author fixes the 
limits of the Chimmesyan family on the coast between the Koloschan 
and the Haeltzukan tribes.^ All about Puget Sound were Salishan 
tribes, and a small contingent of the same family approach the harpoon 
area at the mouth of the Bella Coola River. 

Harlan I. Smith dug up at the junction of Thompson and Fraser 
rivers two barbed harpoon heads 9 inches long, made of antler. They 
have two barbs on one side and a hole for the connecting line.^ 

In a future paper the fishhooks of the same area will be discussed, 
from which it can be more clearly shown how the idea of the bent 
finger and its imitators in bone and wood has also dominated the form 
of the fish spear and the harpoon. 

Niblack* figures both barbed and toggle harpoon heads among the 
Haida Indians of Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, a little 



1 Marchand's Voyage, London, 1801, I, pp. 492-493. 

"^ Fifth Report of Committee on Northwest Tribes of Canada, British Association for 
the Advancement of Science, 1889. 
^ Memoirs, American Museum Natural History, New York, II, p. 137, tig. 20. 
* Report U. S. National Museum, 1888, pi. xxix. 



282 KEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 

farther north. The barljed heads are of steel. The piercing end of 
each is lanceolate. The barbed portion is toothed or notched in its 
entire length, six barbs on the one side and five on the other, alter- 
nating. The tang is oval, perforated, and has a small loop or clevis 
riveted fast to it. Through this is secured a plaited lan3^ard or loop of 
seaweed. In- means of which the head is attached to the foreshaft or to 
the main line. Each one of these fits in a cedar case, made by splitting 
a piece of Avood, hollowing it out, and then lashing the parts together, 
a method adopted by these Indians in their musical instruments and 
various receptacles. 

The toggle harpoon (Cat. No. 88929, U.S.N.M.) of the Haida 
Indians, figured ])y Niblack, is still more interesting, being quite simi- 
lar to the harpoon arrowheads of the South American tribes. The 
head is of steel, the piercing ends in the form of a spike. At the other 
end the metal is split open and one portion extended backward for a 
barb or spur. Just where the spur unites with the body a rawhide 
line is Avrapped to form a shallow socket. Into this the end of the 
loose shaft fits, being cut off' in the form of a wedge at the end. The 
other end of the loose shaft is widened out to fit into a socket in the 
end of the shaft. The thong which is wrapped around the head is also 
securely fastened to the foreshaft at its middle and looped at the other 
end, to be spliced on to the long line for securing the game. (Cat. No. 
88803, U.S.N.M.) 

Captain Cook draws attention to the barbed harpoons on Cook 
Inlet, made of fir, about 4 feet in length. They are mentioned here 
to mark the northern terminus of the unilateral barb, but they will 
be described fully later on. One end is formed of bone, into which, 
b}' means of a socket, another small piece of bone, which is barbed, is 
fixed, ))ut contrived in such a manner as to be put in and taken out 
w ithout trouble. This is secured to the middle of the stick by a strong, 
though thin piece of twine composed of sinews. These darts are 
thrown w^ith the assistance of a thin piece of wood 12 or 14 inches long. 
The middle of this is slight h^ hollowed for the better reception of the 
weapon, and at the termination of the hollow, which does not extend 
to the end, is fixed a short, pointed piece of bone to prevent the dart 
from slipping. The other extremity is furnished with a hole for the 
forefinger, and the sides are made to coincide with the other fingers 
and thuml) in order to grasp with greater firmness.^ 

The Chilkotin Indians in western Canada spear salmon wdth a double- 
headed toggle harpoon. The shaft is a long pole, upon the inner end 
of which are spliced two short pieces of w^ood which nerve as foreshafts. 
The head of the harpoon is made of three separate pieces, the point or 
spike and two flukes or spurs, all securely lashed together in such a 
way that a cavity is left in the base for the end of the foreshaft. The 

^ISecoml Voyage, III, p. 14. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



233 



line is tied at its ends around the heads, just above the flukes or barbs, 
and the middle of the line is securely held 
in place near the end of the shaft by a 
lashing of line. When the salmon is struck 
the toggle is fastened in the animal's body 
and is withdrawn from the .ends of the 
foreshaft. The short line between the 
head and the shaft enables the fisherman 
to play with the victim and to land it more 
successfully/ Similar toggle heads on a 
bifurcated shaft are to be seen among the 
Thompson River Indians of British Co- 
lumbia. This weapon is used for harpoon- 
ing salmon from the shore while they are 
running. The handle is 15 feet or more 
in length and has two prongs securely 
spliced on to the end of the shaft (fig. 22). 
The Thompson River specimen is similarly 
made up of three pieces, the point and the 
two spurs, but these last do not bend out- 
ward, as in the Chilkotin example, but lie 
close against the foreshaft, leaving a nar- 
row cavity to fit over the end of the latter, 
which is whittled in the form of a wedge. 
The line or leader which holds these two 
barbs to the front end of the shaft is 
braided, and the ends are caught under the 
lashing by means of which the toggle is 
built up. James Teit says that when the 
fish is struck the barb points are detached, 
and the fish, with the toggle in its body, is 
hauled ashore by means of the line. In 
some forms of the spear the whole fore- 
shaft is detachable. There are also exam- 
ples in which only one toggle head is used, 
and there are also spears with fixed heads. 
In that case the weapon is thrust through 
the body of the fish.^ Batchelor figures a 
similar double-headed toggle harpoon 
among the Ainu.^ 

On the eastern side of North America it 
will be convenient to begin with Florida. 
Looking over Mr. Cushing's collections from San Marco, in the south- 




TOGGLE HARPOON. 



Thompson Indians, British Columbia. 

Am. Mus. Nat. History, N. Y 

After James Teit. 



^A. G. Morice, Notes on the Western D^nes. Trans. Canadian Institute, 1894, p. 
^ James Teit, Thompson River Indians, 1900, p. 251, fig. 231. 
3 The Ainu of Japan, Chicago, 1893, p. 154. 



NAT MUS 1900- 



-16 



234: REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 

western cornet of the State, and Mr. Sawyers drawings, made at the 
time they were excavated, does not reveal harpoons; but two varieties 
of throwing sticks were dug up. Gushing found no barbed heads. It 
was a great surprise to find the atlatl or spear and harpoon thrower in 
Florida. In 1895, when Gushing first heard of the wonderful remains 
at San Marco, Von den Steinen had just revealed the finding of the 
same implement in the Mato Grosso, Lumholtz and Seler announced 
its existence in northern Mexico, and the author discovered it in the 
clifi' dwellings of the Verde. Gushing's are the central finger-hole 
t3'pe and the two-holed type for the fore and the middle finger. As 
the Gulf Stream sweeps past the Orinoco mouth, across the Garibbean 
sea to Yucatan, and thence in a narrower and swifter current past 
Florida Keys, one is not surprised to find a Mexican weapon there. 

Mr. H. A. Ernst says: "'The Seminole Indians of the Everglades 
now use white man's hooks, but adhere to the old-fashioned harpoon, 
which is used in catching fish and terrapin." The reader will find 
abundant evidence of the use of barbed harpoons in the Southern 
Straits in quotations from Adair, Barker, Bartram, de Bry, and Hen- 
nepin. Adair accompanied the Indians killing sturgeons in Savannah 
River with green swamp harpoons. These are long, sharp-pointed 
green canes, well bearded and hardened in the fire. When they dis- 
covered a fish the}^ thrust into its body one of the harpoons. "As the 
fish would immediately strike deep, its strength was soon expended in 
violent struggles against the buoyant force of the green dart. As 
soon as the top end of the dart appeared again on the surface of the 
water, we made up to the fish, renewed the attack, and in like manner 
continued until we had secured our game."^ These southern harpoons 
were of the very lowest grade, if they were worthy of the name at all. 
The motives for devising a highlv organized type did not exist. 

In Rau's Prehistoric Fishing, barbed harpoon heads are figured. 
These were taken from mounds, shell heaps, and other remains, from 
Maine to Michigan. They all belong to the barbed variet3\ and are of 
the simplest kind. Three types might be said to exist in Dr. Wilson's 
collection in the National Museum, the sagittate, in which the barbs 
are equal on the two sides of the point; the forms Avith multiple barbs 
of the same number on either side; those having an uneven number of 
barbs on the two sides, usually two on one edge and three on the other, 
and those with any number of barbs on one side, as on the north Pacific 
coast. At the tang end ])ar])ed harpoons are divided into two classes 
by means of the connecting line which joins the head to the shaft, 
namely, the notched tang and the pierced tang. These again are fur- 
ther subdivided, for the notch may be only a scratching or roughening 
of the surface or a bulb, and the piercing may be only a small hole or 

^C. C. Jdiies, Antiquities of the Southern Indiana, New York, 1873, Chapter xiv. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 235 

large opening. About the Great Lakes barbed harpoon heads are 
plentiful, notched and pierced. 

Charlevoix describes the sturgeon spear of the Iroquois fishermen 
on the Great Lakes. Two men go out in a canoe, one to paddle, the 
other, in the bow, holding a barbed harpoon dart secured to the canoe 
by a long cord. Ingersoll compares this to the Columbia River stur- 
geon chaser. The hook is like a gaff attached to a short wooden 
socket fast to a line, the other end of which is tied to the canoe. The 
operation of catching is described by Swan.^ On the authority of 
Dr. W. M. Beauchamp the barbed harpoon had a wide variation 
among the Iroquois and the tribes on the Great Lakes. They are, as 
regards their barbs, unilateral and bilateral, and as to the tang, notched, 
bulbed, and pierced. The bilateral and sagittate forms are earlier and 
in larger numbers. Recent Mohawk, Cayuga, and Seneca sites yield 
large specimens. Both kinds are most plentiful at the inlet of Onon- 
daga Lake, the outlet of Oneida Lake, and near Chaumont Bay, in 
Jefferson Count}^ At Brewerton more harpoon heads have been 
found than in all the rest of New York and, perhaps, than all the 
eastern United States. It is an excellent place for the work of the 
harpoon. The large Iroquois harpoon had only a short point. The 
counties in New York jaelding barbed harpoons are Jefferson, Mont- 
gomery, Madison, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Livingston. They are 
found in village sites and camps, rarely in graves, coming out of the 
ashes, says Beauchamp, in fine order. 

Dr. Beauchamp has made a thorough study of the bone harpoon 
head in the Iroquois country in New York. The reader will have to con- 
sult his Bulletin of the New York State Museum to appreciate the end- 
less variety of forms carved out by this quick-minded race. There are 
pierced, bulbed, and notched bases, unilateral and bilateral barbs, wide 
and narrow blades, single barbs and multiple barbs, long barbs and 
short barbs, alternate and opposite barbs. One would require the 
vocabulary of the botanist for leaves to define the shapes in Beau- 
champ's figures. 

Josselyn tells us that among the New England Indians bass and blue- 
fish were taken in harbors and in the mouths of barred rivers, the fisher- 
men being in canoes and striking the fish with a "fizgig," a kind of 
dart or staff', to the lower end of which was fastened a sharp, jagged 
bone with a string to it. As soon as the fish was struck the hunter 
pulled away the staff, leaving the barbed head in the fish's body, and 
fastened the other end of the string to the canoe. Thus they hauled 
often as many as ten great fish to the shore. 

Sturgeon were taken in this way at night on the fishing banks, Avhere 
they were feeding upon small fishes called lances, sucking them out of 
the sand. The Indian lighted a piece of dry birch bark and held it 

^Ernest Ingersoll, The Field, London, LXII, p. 413. 



236 EEPOET OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 

over the side of the canoe; the sturgeon, seeing this light, mounted to 
the surface, where it was slain and captured with a fizgig/ 

Dr. Fewkes calls attention to walrus-ivory spear points in Nova 
Scotia similar to those used l)y the Eskimo. The walrus frequented 
the coast of Prince Edward Island within historic times. The points 
are not definitely described.'^ 

ARCTIC HARPOONS. 

The Eskimo harpoons are of every variety, barbed or toggle. 
The dependence of the people largely on aquatic animals for food, 
dress, house, furniture, tools, and utensils of all sorts makes some 
kind of retrieving device absolutely necessary. They use the lance 
also most effectively, but the weak spear, with which the Indian tribes 
are wont to pick fish from the water, would be of little use among the 
Eskimo. The variety of animal life, both in size and habit, as well as 
differences of terrestrial conditions, have stimulated the Eskimo mind 
to the utmost in devising the most varied additions to what was in the 
beginning quite simple. Here, also, along the Arctic shore, more 
than in all other environments of the Western Hemisphere combined, 
suggestions of improvement have come from without. It is nature's 
pedagogic institute. More than that, harpoon heads, large and small, 
of most appropriate patterns, have been made by machinery and traded 
to the Eskimo by whalers and fur hunters. In this part of the paper 
the specimens will be described as they occur. The question of the 
derivation of each feature will then be more easily settled. 

A. B. Meyer calls attention to this and says that the little toggle 
heads of harpoons were not invented in their present form. Semper 
encountered them among the Negritos of the Palanan, north coast of 
Luzon, for pig shooting, in the form of harpoon arrows. Meyer 
describes an example from Bataan, after A. Schadenberg, and figures 
examples from Palanan and Bataan. All of these have 3-feathered 
shafts, spindle-shaped loose shafts, attached to both head and shaft by 
a short line, and iron heads, including both barb and toggle charac- 
teristics. The barbs are sometimes at right angles to the plane of the 
line hole, in other examples in the same plane. In some the toggle 
head has a conical projection for a socket, the latter being on the end 
of the loose shaft. Of the last-named pattern the Eskimo examples 
have no parallel forms. ^ 

The Eskimo province may be divided into the following areas or 
subdivisions: 

Area 1. East Greenland, west Greenland, Labrador, and Hudson 
Bay. 



^ John Josselyn, Two Voyages to New England, 1674, p. 140. 
2 American Antiquarian, XVIII, 1896, p. 6. 



^A. B. Meyer, Die Negritos, IX, folio series, publications of the Royal Dresden 
Museum, p. 14, figs. 1 and 2; pi. vi, figs. 2 and 3; pi. viii, figs. 1 and 2. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 287 

Area 2. The central Eskimo of Boas. 

Area 3. The arctic Eskimo, from the mouth of the Mackenzie River, 
including- Point Barrow and Kotzebue Sound. 

Area 4. The Bering Sea Eskimo, including Bering Strait southward 
to Norton Sound, the lower Yukon, Nunivak Island and the mainland, 
Bristol Bay, and Kadiak. 

EAST GREENLAND HARPOONS. 

In this seemingl}^ out-of-the- world location the harpoon is far from 
its original form. All specimens are toggled and iron enters surpris- 
ingly into their composition. Holm (1887) figures the different varie- 
ties in his Plates 15, 16, 29, 30, 32, 33. 

The hinged lance is here also with shaft of wood, having hand rests 
on the sides, assembling lines of rawhide to hold the parts together ^ 
and foreshaft with flat top, from the middle of which a short cone pro- 
jects. Some lances have, instead of hand rests for thrusting or hurl- 
ing from the hand, the throwing stick or ajagsick. The head of the 
hinged lance consists of three parts, the iron blade (1), set in a shank 
of ivor}^ (2), and this is fastened into a ))lock of the same material (3), 
with flat base, in the center of which is a cavity just fitting over the 
cone on the top of the foreshaft. This hlock is hinged to the foreshaft 
by means of elastic rawhide thongs piercing it and the shaft ^ (fig. 23). 

The plainest variety of east Greenland has a wooden shaft, with 
chisel-shaped ice pick at the end. The toggle head is of bone or ivory, 
with iron blade, flat, cone-shaped bod}^, two line holes quite through 
the body, united by a groove on the back, into which the line sinks. 
The shaft socket is in the center of the base, two wing-like barbs flanking 
it. The complete sealing harpoon is modeled after that of west Green- 
land, having eyelets instead of hooks for the throwing stick, and being 
covered all over with little figures of animals, reminding one slightl}^ 
of the Aleutian hat and the bark onlaying of the Amur people. 

The barbed leisters or fish spears, with two or more barbs, are turned 
by these Eskimo into a toggle arrangement quite unique in America. 
The piercing ends are of iron or bone and hinged as in a pair of scis- 
sors, the cutting end piercing the animal, the other end h^ing against 
the shank. When they have entered the flesh these points turn at right 
angles and toggle.^ A most curious device is the adaptation of this 
hinged head to a seal harpoon, provided with a little sled on the fore 
end of a very long shaft. It will be seen later on that the west Green- 
landers use for deep-sea fishing for seals a very long shaft worked by 
two men, and that the Giliaks make a harpoon shaft nearly a hundred 
feet long, with a float on the fore end."^ 

^ Holm, East Greenland, 1887, pi. xv. 

^Idem., pi. XV, a and b. 

^Schrenk, Reisen und Forsehungen in Amurliinde, 1881, p. 546. 



238 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



A harpoon (Cat. No. 168960, U.S.N.M.) from east Greenland, pre- 
sented by the Copenhagen Museum, is shown in Plate -i. While 
in general appearance the weapon is similar to those of the same char- 
acter in southwest Greenland, the head is a type peculiar to the eastern 
part of the peninsula. The body is of narwhal ivory, conical in out- 
line, a long, lanceolate blade fastened in by means of a rivet. The 
point of the loose shaft enters directly into the base, which is 
flanked by two conspicuous barbs or spurs. A strip of iron is riveted 
across the lower portion on either side to strengthen it. An interest- 
ing feature in this specimen is the line hole, which consists of two sep- 
arate perforations, united on the back with a 
groove or countersunk cavity to prevent the 
line from chafing. The loose shaft, which has 
been neatty spliced at the upper end, has a 
flat surface at the base, with a projection in 
the middle, fitting into a cavity on the front of 
the foreshaft, and the two are tightly hinged 
together by means of a lashing of elastic raw- 
hide. The use of this joint has been elsewhere 
explained. The foreshaft is in this specimen a 
cap of ivory, squared off on top, and the middle 
left projecting for the socket on the base of 
the loose shaft. The shaft is of wood, and has 
on its surface the following attachments: A 
knob of ivory at the lower end, three hooks or 
pegs for the throwing stick, one to catch into 
its base or working end, and two near each 
other fitting into holes in the manual end of the 
throwing stick, as seen in the figure. Near 
these pegs is a hook of ivory, over which fits 
a catch of the same material on the line, serv- 
ing to hold the toggle head firmly upon the top 
of the loose shaft when the weapon is set ready 
to be plunged into the body of the animal. 
The throwing stick has a perforation at the 
working end instead of a peg. The line of rawhide is fastened imme- 
diately into the head of the harpoon and has a toggle at the other end 
to be attached to the line of the float. The other accessories to har- 
poons of this class are to be seen in Plates 14, 15, and 16 of Holm (1887). 




Fig. 23. 

HINGED TOGGLE HEAD. 

East Greenland. 
After Gustav Holm. 



WEST GREENLAND. 



The oldest accounts of the Eskimo refer to those of Greenland and 
Labrador, but some of their apparatus remains quite primitive. Again, 
in a preliminary work like this the area can not be accurately sub- 
divided. The natives themselves are fond of wandering about, and 



Report of U. S. National Mwjpum, l^CO — Ma'.on. 



Plate 4. 






Toggle Harpoon, East Greenland. 

Gift ul Copenhagen Museum. 
Cat. No. 108960. U.S.N. M. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 239 

they leave their ideas as well as their accouterments. The task of dis- 
crimination is further embarrassed by the collector's unfortunate habit 
of labeling a specimen with the name of the place where he procured 
it, himself frequentl}^ not knowing the place of its manufacture. The 
numbers on the specimens are arranged as they occur in the catalogue 
of the U. S. National Museum. 

Hans Egede, the apostle to Greenland (1721-1736), gives the follow- 
ing description of the harpoon and its uses: 

When the Indians of Greenland go whale catching they put on their best apparel, 
fancying that if they did not come neatly dressed the whale, who can not bear 
slovenly habits, would shun them. About fifty men and women set out in one of 
the large boats called kone-boats. The women carry along with them their sewing 
tackle, consisting of needles and thread, to sew and mend their husbands' spring 
coats should they be torn, and also to mend the boat in case it should receive 
any damage. The men go in search of the whale, and when they have found it 
they strike it with their harpoons, to which are fastened lines or straps 2 or 3 
fathoms long, at the end of which they tie a bag of a whole seal skin filled with 
air; so that when a whale finds itself wounded and runs away with the harpoon it 
may the sooner become tired, the air bag hindering it from ])eing long under water. 
When it thus loses strength they attack it again with their spears and lances until it 
is killed; then they put on their spring coats, made of dressed seal skin, all of one 
piece, wdth boots, gloves, and caps, sewed and laced so tight together that no water 
can penetrate them. In this garb they jump into the sea and begin to slice the fat off 
all around the body, evenundei the water; for in these coats they can not sink, since 
they are full of air, so that they can, like the seal, stand upright in the sea. They 
are sometimes so daring they will get upon the whale's back while there is yet life 
in him, to cut away the fat. 

They go much the same way to work in killing seal except that the harpoon is 
lesser, and to it is fastened a line 6 or 7 fathoms long. At the end is a bladder or 
bag made of a small sealskin filled with air, to keep the seal, when he is wounded, 
from diving under water and being lost again. In the northern parts, where the 
sea is frozen over in the winter, the Eskimo use other means. They first look 
out for holes which the seals make with their claws, about the size of a half penny, 
that they may catch their breath. After they have found a hole they seat them- 
selves near it upon a chair made for the purpose, and as soon as they perceive the 
seal come up to the hole and put its snout into it for air, they immediately strike 
it with a small harpoon to which is fastened a strap a fathom long, which they hold 
in the other hand. After it is struck and can not escape, they cut the hole so 
large that they may get the animal up through it, and as soon as they have its head 
above the ice they can kill it with one blow of the fist. 

A third way of catching seals is to make a great hole in the ice, or in the spring 
they find holes made by the seals. Near to these holes they place a low bench 
upon which they lie down upon their bellies, having first made a small hole near the 
larger one, through which they let softly down a perch 16 or 20 yards long, headed 
with a harpoon, a strap being fastened to it which one holds in his hand, while 
another, who lies upon a bench with his face downward, watches the coming of the 
seal, when he cries "Kae," whereupon he who holds the pole pushes and strikes 
the seal. 

The fourth way is this: When the seals, in the spring, are lying upon the ice near 
holes which they themselves make to get up and down, the Greenlanders, clothed 
in sealskin, holding harpoons in their hands, creep along upon the ice, moving their 



240 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



heads backward and forward and snoring like a seal till they come so near them that 
tliey can reach the animal with their harpoons and strike them. ' 

'I'ho (jreenlanders, says Nansen, use two forms of the great harpoon: 
(1) the Unak, with butt end tinished in a bone knob; it is longer and 
slighter than (2) the Ernangnak, having on its butt end two feathers 
of bone, connnonly whale rib, to increase the weight and guide the 
flight.'- The line is made of young walrus (Odohceims remnants) or of 
})earded seal hide {Phoea harhata)^ from 15 to 18 
yards long and one-fourth inch wide. The float is 
the skin of a 3^oung ringed seal {Phoca fmtida) taken 
oft' whole, the hair removed, the apertures all tied 
up, and the whole dried. The line is coiled on the 
kaiak stand. '^ He calls the great Greenland and 
Hudson Bay harpoon, thrown from the hand with- 
out the throwing stick, Sigagut. In the work above 
referred to a spirited description of the harpoon 
and its accessories will be found (pp. 62-64), with 
figures. 

Before giving in detail the structure of the west- 
ern Greenland harpoon, attention must again be 
called to the difiiculty of making neat distinctions. 
Recent explorations l)y Peary especially assign 
Smith Sound matei'ial to the Central Eskimo; at 
least it is interaiediate. The constancy of ii-on in 
the oldest specimens also demands that no hasty con- 
clusions be drawn concerning the original Eskimo 
harpoon, either as to its design or ornamentation. 

A toggle head fi'om Greenland (Cat. No. 9836, 
LT.S.N.M.), with a triangular blade of iron slightly 
bar])ed on one corner, fastened into the slit by a 
rivet of iron, is shown in ftg. 24. The body is 
conical; the line hole is cut across the body and 
across the plane of the blade. It is an elliptical 
opening, and its diameter is not in a line with the 
It has one spur for a barb, and the socket for the 
foreshaft is wide and shallow. It is the gift of S. F. Baird. 

A modern toggle head of a whale harpoon (Cat. No. 19510, U.S.N.M.), 
from (xreenland, is seen in tig. 25. This unfinished specimen shows 
th(^ last step in the development of the machine-made toggle head. 
Everything about the specimen demonstrates this — the mathematical 
form, the saw cut for the blade, the socket for the foreshaft, the angu- 
lar barb, and especially the large line hole cut straight across the body 
of the toggle head. \\\ the primitive examples this last feature cost 

7 

' Egede's Greenland, pp. 102-106. 
^Nansen, Across Greenland, 1893, p. 37. 
^Jdem., p. 33, 




Fig. 24. 
TOGGLE HEAD. 

West Greenland. 

Collected by S. F. Baird. 
Cat. No. 9836. U.S.N.M. 

axis of the body. 



Report of U. S Na-tional Museum, 1 900.— Mason. 



Plate 5, 




Seal Harpoon from West Greenland. 

Collected by N. P. Scudder. 

Cat. No. 35670, U.S.N.M. 



ABOBIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



241 




ih 



the maker a great deal of trouble. He had to bore two holes slanting 
toward each other and meeting inside, to unite these by removing the 
rough surface, and to separately prepare grooves to receive the line. 
This is the gift of J. H. Clark. 

Plate 5 in the U. S. National Museum is a complete seal harpoon 
from west Greenland (Cat. No. 35670). The head is a combination 
of barb and toggle, sagittate in outline, with a slender waist and wide 
base; a very gracefully-made specimen. The blade is rhomboidal, but 
squared off in the saw cut and riveted with iron. The o):>longline hole 
passes straight through the waist and 
has slight line grooves. 

There are three barbs. Those on 
the side are angular, prominent, and 
sawed out, so as to present three 
flat surfaces inside; the terminal barb 
angular, formed by the two sloping 
faces of the back and the beveled sur- 
face of the butt; socket for the end 
of the foreshaft narrow and clean 
cut. The butt end has no bend or 
curve in it, but is formed by a single 
cut in the same plane. 

The line is drawn through the line 
hole, bent, and the end fastened down 
6 inches from the toggle head, and 
held fast by a seizing of sinew three- 
ply braid, laid on for an inch in half 
hitches. 

At a distance of 50 inches from the 
toggle head is an eyelet of bone, 1^ 
inches long and half an inch wide, hav- 
ing rectangular outline and pierced 
with three holes, through one of 
which the line runs. Just beyond 
this eyelet is a wrapping of sinew 
string acting as a stop. The whole line is over 30 feet long and termi- 
nates in a toggle of reindeer antler, with a knob at one end and a 
bifurcation at the other end. This is to hook into a loop in the line of 
the float, to be now described. 

The hide of a young seal was drawn off' over the neck, care being 
taken to keep the legs and other parts complete. After being turned 
right side out, the hide was sweated, depilated, and again turned wrong 
side out and all openings carefull}^ fastened up air-tight. But into the 
puckered oritice of the neck a stout rawhide loop was inserted and made 
fast and into one forefoot a bone mouthpiece was firmly lashed. About 



llg. 25. 
TOGGLE HEAD. 

West Greenland. 
Collected by J. H. Clark. Cat. No. 19510, U.S.N.M. 



242 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 

this vspecimen, as on many other floats, little holes were stopped by studs 
of wood or hard animal substance, set in when the hide was green, which, 
shrinking, renders the joint perfectly tight. As mentioned, into the 
puckered neck of thQ float was knotted a bend or loop 6 inches long. 
This would serve as a handle and be inseparable from the float. A 
stout piece of rawhide line, 3 or 4 feet long, was bent to form a loop 
at each end. Into one loop the float-loop was spliced, and into the one 
on the other end of the line the toggle of the harpoon line hooks. The 
bends in the ends of the short float line are seized down by means of 
sinew braid in half hitches. The float is always associated with the 
kaiak, and therefore it has attachments for it, as well as for the line. 
In the end of the float, where the float loop is fastened, and on .either 
side of the latter, two short rawhide lines are inserted and made fast 
on the inside. These short pieces are run into the ends of a device, 
made from two pieces of antler, for slipping under one of the cross 
lines on the deck of the kaiak. For this purpose a hole was bored up 
in the end of each one of these pieces 1 inch, met by a hole bored half 
way in at the side, and half an inch above another hole was bored quite 
through. The line from the float is drawn up the hole at the end, out 
at the meeting hole, and through the upper hole, where it is fastened 
with a peg, the two holes being united on the outside b}^ a countersink 
to prevent abrasion by ice. A wooden peg wedges the line fast in the 
inner hole. The two front ends of the pieces of antler are united by 
an iron rivet. These details are mentioned to call attention to the 
cunning makeshifts of savages working with the poorest tools. The 
maxim, "Where there's a will there's a way," is quite true among the 
Eskimo. 

The shaft is a typical Greenland form and consists of loose shaft 
and rawhide hinge or connecting line, foreshaft, shaft, and ''feathers." 

The loose shaft is an elongated cone of ivory 7i inches in length, 
having at a distance of 1 inch from the butt a raised ornament of 
rings and bands turned as in a lathe, the middle band with cross ridges. 
Two holes are ])ored, one aVjove the other, through this ornament, and 
three holes through the fore end of the wooden shaft for the rawhide 
thong that forms the elastic joint between loose shaft and foreshaft. 
This thong is doubled at its widest end and the whole drawn through 
one of the shaft holes, not tightly; it passes (1) through the lower hole 
of the loose shaft, (2) back through a hole in the shaft, (3) up through 
the outer hole in the loose shaft, (4) back through the loop in the first 
end, then through the third hole of the shaft and once wrapped around, 
the end being tucked under as in making a single knot after the whole 
is drawn as tight as possible. 

The ])ase of the loose shaft is squared ofi' and socketed. The fore- 
shaft is only half an inch long, but forms an ellipse li b}" li inches in 
diameter. It has a pivot or projection on top to fit into the socket of 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 243 

the loose shaft and is excavated below to fit over a tenon in the end of 
the wooden shaft, which is kept from splitting b}^ a wrapping of sinew 
twine. 

The shaft, of pine wood, 5 feet 2 inches long and 1^ inches thick, 
tapers somewhat toward the butt end. Upon it are the following 
additions: Buttons for holding the shaft on the kaiak, peg over which 
the e^^elet on the line catches to hold the head on the loose shaft, two 
pegs for the throwing stick, and bone feathers. 

The buttons for holding the apparatus on the kaiak are two little 
almond-shaped bits of ivory, attached to the shaft near either end by 
means of a short rawhide thong. These buttons are tucked under the 
cross lines on the deck of the kaiak, but on occasion do not ofier any 
ratchet to prevent withdrawal. The throwing stick pegs for the two 
holes in that apparatus are of bone and extend quite^ through the shaft 
near either end. The west Greenland shaft for the seal harpoon is 
unique in having the pegs on the shaft and not on the throwing stick. 

The butt end of the shaft is squared for the attachment of the two 
" feathers" carved from whale's bone. The end of the shaft is beveled 
off and grooved. 

It must be borne in mind that as a rule the North American Indians 
have three feathers on their arrows, radiating outward; the Eskimo 
have two, laid flat on the flat shaftment. Now on the west Greenland 
smaller harpoon, at either side of the butt, is a strip of whale's bone 
16 inches long, from li inches wide, and one-eighth inch thick, both 
exactly alike, with long leaf -shaped outline terminating in a fish-tail 
bifurcation. These two plates are pegged on for 5 to 6 inches, so that 
their outsides are flush with the shaft, and their butt ends are held 
apart in place by an ivory peg or cylinder. The area of this device or 
attachment is very circumscribed. It is not shown by Boas, Kumlien, 
or Turner. The throwing stick is of light, coniferous wood, very 
broad in the manual part and tapering gracefully toward the working 
end. The top is slightly rounded up, the bottom of two surfaces meet- 
ing in a ridge along the middle. The shaft groove is an inch wide and 
from one-fourth to one-eighth inch deep, extending the entire length 
of the piece. It is right-handed, having a deep under-cut notch on the 
left margin for the thumb, just back of which on the margin is a pretty 
bit of bone pegged on. The hole in the manual part for the peg has 
in front of it a washer of bone set in to prevent the peg from wearing 
the hole larger. Into the working end of the throwing stick is neatly 
set a T-shaped bit of whale's bone, held in place by pegs quite through 
both bone and wood. At the outer end of this bone is a large hole 
slanting forward and into it the rear peg on the shaft fits. When 
pulled straight ahead the hook holds firmly, but when the throwing 
stick begins to turn away from the shaft the hole unhinges from the 
peg. All this action with least resistance is provided for iu the 
device. Collected bj^ N. P. Scudder. 



244 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



A flat toggle head (No. 45855, U.S.N.M.) with a gibbous section has 
the back more compressed than the belly. The front end is rounded, 
the blade slit not deep, and rivet hole large. The line hole is curved 
upward and has deep line grooves. Barbs, two on the outer margins, 
formed by a slightly incurved cut into the butt end. The butt is 
whittled away so that the toggle head is just as long on the belly as on 
the back. Length, 3 inches. Gift of the Copenhagen Museum. 
Example 63951, gift of Governor Fenckner, is somewhat similar, but 

the back is longer and the 
notch between the tips of 
the barbs is not angular. 

Example No. 45670 in the 
U. S. National Museum is 
the point of a large har- 
poon from Greenland. The 
blade, of iron, was inserted 
in a saw cut in the end of 
the shank and riveted with 
iron, now decayed by rust. 
The shank, of whale's rib, 
is rectangular in the section 
at the front and circular 
in other parts. Between 
the rectangular and circu- 
lar portions are four barbs. 
At the angles the butt end 
is conical to fit into a socket. 
In the end of the shaft, 3 
inches above, two holes are 
pierced for the insertion of 
a thong forming a hinge 
between the loose shaft and 
the shaft. Total length, 15f 
inches. Gift of the Copen- 
No. 63939 is a broken and unfinished specimen of 





Fig. 26. 

TOGGLE AND BARBED HARPOON HEAD. 

West Greenland. 
Gift of Copenhagen Museum. Cat. No. 45883. U.S.N.M 



hagen Museum, 
the same type. 

Example No. 45872 in the U. S. National Museum is the loose shaft 
and point of a barbed harpoon combined, from south Greenland. The 
front end is furnished with two barbs on one side and the top is 
pointed. The butt end is cylindrical to fit into the foreshaft, and 2 
inches above it are three holes bored for the rawhide thong which 
attaches this part to the shaft. The noticeable feature in this old 
piece is the presence of the barbs on the loose shaft and the entire 
absence of toggle attachments. Length, 14 inches. Gift of the 
Copenhagen Museum. 



aBORIGIT^AL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



245 



Fig. 26 is a combined toggle and barbed harpoon head from Avestern 
Greenland (No. 45883, U.S.N.M.), all in one piece of antler. The 
bod}^ is narrow and flat, the spongy part of the material being the back 
of the implement, while the belly, which takes the strain of the line, 
is the outside hard portion of the antler. For a blade, the fore end 
was sharpened to a point. There is no evidence of a metal blade hav- 
ing been used in this head. The line hole is formed by two slanting 
holes meeting on the back of the body, so as to leave a small opening 
on the back, a feature not common in Greenland specimens, but 
observed in man}^ from the Amur region (Plate 7). The line grooves 
extend only half an inch backward, and then suddenly terminate. 
Originalh' there were doubtless three barbs; one, a strong hook on the 
left-hand margin' between the point and the line 
hole, and two barbs at the butt, spread out like 
a fish tail, the tips being cut in an ornamental 
manner (see Plate 8, from Von Schrenk). The 
socket for the foreshaft is onlv three-fourths of 
an inch deep. The ])utt end is cut off Avith a 
long bevel, steep on its lower half and sloping 
more and more outward. Length, 4i inches. 
Collected by Dr. Emil Bessels, but special local- 
ity not given. 

A toggle head of bone from western Green- 
land (No. 45884, U.S.N.M), conoid in form and 
double convex in section, is shown in tig. 27. 
The blade, which was of metal, is Avanting, and 
the blade slit is wide for such a small specimen, 
the rivet hole neatl}^ bored. Line hole, of two 
cone-shaped cavities, meeting in the body of the 
implement, and having slight line grooves. 
There is but one barb, pointed on the back, a 
little to the right-hand side of the middle. The 
socket for the end of the foreshaft is cone-shaped. 
Length, 2i inches. Gift of the Copenhagen Museum. This speci- 
men, though exceedingly plain in shape, does not mark an earl}^ form 
of toggle harpoon head, but a later period, when they were made in 
great numbers, sometimes by machinery, and sold to the Eskimo, Avho 
found it easier to provide themselves in this way than to make them 
by their rude tools. 

An old toggle head of a harpoon from north Greenland (No. 45885, 
U.S.N.M.), collected by Emil Bessels, is shown in fig. 28. 

The body is of bone, the back nearly flat, being the soft part of the 
material, and the belly, which is more rounded, is of the outer, hard 
part of the bone, this being necessary in order to take the strain of 
the line. 

NAT MUS 1900 17 




Fig. 27. 

TOGGLE HEAD. 

West Greenland. 

ft of Copenhagen Musetini. 
Cat. No. 45884, U.S.N.M. 



246 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 




The blade in this example is missing, and was inserted in a saw cut 

at the rounded end of the body and held in place b}^ a rivet. 

The shaft socket is a conical hole centered between the back and the 

front surfaces and flanked by barbs 
whose points are formed hy the meeting 
of the back, the belly, and the socket or 
excavation in the rear for the foreshaft. 
Th,e line hole is formed bv the meet- 
ing of two holes bored in from the under 
side and not quite through to the top. 
Line grooves project backward from 
the line hole so as to render all smooth 
to prevent the thong from chafing. 
Length, 2^ inches. 

A combined barl)ed and toggle head 
(Cat. No. 45886, U.S.N.M.) from west 
Greenland is shown in fig. 29, and is a 
gift of the Copenhagen Museum. The 
body is of bone, the back being formed 
of the hard or outside portion. The 
kerf for the blade 
is wide, and the 
latter, missing in 
this specimen, was 
fastened in with a 
rivet. On either 
side of the blade 

are two marginal barbs, cut out squarely as with 

a saw; from the tang of these barbs the body 

widens out to the tip end of the spur or flukes. 

The line hole is formed by two distinct conical 

bores, which meet at their inner extremities, 

forming at the same time a continuous cavity 

and line grooves. The butt is bifurcated, and 

the cavit}^ for the end of the foreshaft seems to 

have been bored out after the barbs were formed. 

This fine old piece is worthy of note in that both 

types of harpoon head, the barbed and the tog- 
gle, are preserved. The specimen represents 

also what Murdoch considers to be the original 

form, since the barbs, the blade, and the line 

hole are in the same plane, while in the better and more improved 

varieties the blade is set in at right angles to the line hole. 

A barbed harpoon head of bone (Cat. No. 45887, U.8.N.M.), all in 

one piece, from northwestern Greenland, is shown in fig. 30. It is 



OLD TOGGLE HEAD. 

North Greenland. 

Cat. No. 4588.1, 



Collected by Emil Bessels 
U.S.N.M. 




Fig. 29. 

()J,I) B.\RBED AND TOGGLE 

HEAD. 

West Greenland. 

Gift of Copenhagen Museum. 

Cat. No. 45886, I .S.N.M. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



247 




FU 30. 

BARBED HARPOON HEAD. 

Northern Greenland. 
Collected by Emil Bessels. Cat. No. 45887 
U.S.N.M. 



shaped like a barbed and tanged arrowhead, with a line hole through 

the tang in the plane of the blade. The tang abuts squarel}^ on the 

end of the shaft and the front of the 

blade is sharpened to an edge. The barbs 

are not of equal length. Length, If 

inches; width, 1^^^ inches. From Green- 
land. Collected by Dr. E. Bessels. 
Cat. No. 45888 (Fig. 31) is a barbed 

head of whale's rib, but there is not 

enough remaining to indicate whether it 

had toggle attachments. Length, 4i 

inches. Gift of Copenhagen Museum. 
These old pieces are most interesting 

connecting links between the simple barb 

and the toggle head. They might be named 

conservative harpoon heads, which, while 

trying the new device, can not at once 

lay the old 
barb aside. 

A toggle harpoon head (No. 45889, 
U.S.N.M.) from western Greenland, made 
of bone all in one piece, is shown in fig. 
32. It is double convex in section and 
the point is formed % shaving down the 
faces of the body. The line hole passes 
\\'Hli _ through the bone in a direction perpen- 

dicular to the plane of the blade, and the 
single barb is formed by beveling the 
end. The line grooves are slight, and the 
cavit}^ for the shaft large, its margin con- 
tinuous. Length, 5i inches; width, one- 
half inch; depth, fifteen-sixteenths inch. 
Gift of the Museum of Ethnology, Copen- 
llllll'llB hagen. An entirely aboriginal form, with 

no metal about it. From this it is not to 
be inferred that the piece antedates the 
coming of the whites. 

The loose shaft of a toggle harpoon 
(Cat. No. 45893, U.S.N.M.), made of wood, 
from south Greenland, deserves consider- 
ation. It is spindle-shaped, elongated on 
one end, and short at the other, elliptical 
in cross section. Through the thickest 

portion two holes are bored for the rawhide thong which unites it to 

the shaft. Examples of this part of the harpoon in Avood are very 

rare. Length, 9i inches. Gift of the Copenhagen Museum. 



..II 



Fig. 31. 

OLD HARPOON HEAD. 

North Greenland. 
Gift of Copenhagen Museum. 
45888, U.S.N.M. 



248 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



An {uu'ient Inirbed and toggle harpoon head (Cat. No. 45910, U.S. 
N.M.), niad.e from a bit of hollow bone, from northern Greenland, col- 
lected by E. Bessels, is shown in iig. 33. The point has been cut oft' 
so that it is impossible to say how the blade was set on. The barbs on 
the margin in front of the line hole have been 
cut out squarely but their points have evidently 
been reduced. It is possi])le, however, that their 
present form represents nearly the shape of the 
original material. At this point it is proper to 
make an observation which applies very largely 
to the forms of aboriginal implements. The 
savages understood how, in an emergency, to 
secure the largest amount of result with the least 
amount of effort. It is with inventions as with 
language. A long word is not employed when 
a shorter one will suffice, and a servile imita- 
tion of any type specimen 
is not attempted when the 
result can be reached more 
directly. Hence, while ob- 
jects of a certain class re- 
semble one another in gen- 
eral, no two are alike in 
detail. The line hole is cut 
through the soft part of the 
bone by two conical per- 
forations meeting in the 
middle, and the line grooves 
appear to have been made 
by the same instrument. 
The back of the body of 
this toggle head is very hard bono, and the spur 
bends upward and outward, following the natural 
curve of the material. The base is cut off b}^ a 
nearly plane surface. The socket for the fore- 
shaft is a cylindrical hole bored straight into 
the bone from the rear, apparently with an 
instrument of iron. It is not conical as in the 
great majority of Eskimo harpoon heads. 

A toggle harpoon head, made of antler (Cat. 
No. 45947, U.S.N.M.), from north Greenland, 

the gift of the Copenhagen Museum, is shown in fig. 34. It is in the 
form of a flat cone with convex sides. The kerf or saw cut is wider 
than in the more modern examples, because the blade was of stone 
and held in place by a rivet of bone. The line hole is most primitive 



Fig. 32. 
TOGGLE HEAD. 

West Greenland, 

Gift of Copenhagen Museum 

Cat. No. 45889, U.S.N.M. 



i| 



Fig-. 38. 

OLD BARBED AND TOGGLE 
HEAD. 

West Greenland. 

Collected by Einil Bessels. Cat. 

No. 45910, U.S.N.M. 



ABORIGINAL AMEBIC AK HARPOONS. 



249 



and interesting, being formed, not ])y a sloping cavity, but by means 
of a drill. The socket at the base is also conical, opening into the line 
hole, and two barbs of equal size are formed by cutting away the 
material of the back. This bifurcation is found on man}' Greenland 
specimens. Those who are acquainted with the Eskimo handicraft 
in localities where steel tools do not abound are interested to note 
what free and varied use these natives make of drills of different 
sizes. There are twent}" examples of boring on this little toggle 
head, for the rivet, for the line hole grooves and socket, and besides 
for mending a crack in the material. For this last purpose we have 
not only perforations for the sinew mending, but gutters bored one 
twenty-fourth of an inch deep, into which the cord was countersunk. 
This will be better seen by an examination of the illustration. 





Fig. 34. 
OI,D TOGGLE HEAD. 

North Greenlaud. 
Gift of (VM't'nhagt'u Museum. Cat. No. 4.")947. U.S.N.M. 

The point of a barbed harpoon (Cat. No. 63938, U.S.N.M.), from 
Greenland, must be mentioned. The point is arrow-shaped, symmet- 
rical, with two barbs. The tangi is spindle-formed, with a cone at the 
butt end and pierced in two places for the insertion of the line connect- 
ing with the shaft. Length, 5i inches. Gift of Governor Fenckner. 

Similar to this is Cat. No. 63937, U.S.N.M., an old specimen from 
the same locality. These examples have their counterpart in the 
numerous points of the small bar})ed seal harpoon of the western 
Eskimo. 

An old barbed and toggle harpoon head (Cat. No. 63940, U.S.N.M.) 
from west Greenland, the gift of Governor Fenckner, is shown in iig. 
35. The material is bone. The blade is wanting, and the blade slit 
has been cut away. There are three rivet holes, and one of them, 



250 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



seen on the right side of the left-hand figure, is double. The l)arbs 
on the margin are cut out square, as with a saw, but the sides of the 
tang are curved in, leaving shoulders at their })ase, from which point 
the body curves outward to the end of the spurs. The line hole is 
formed, as in most examples of this kind, by two independent coni- 
cal bores which meet at their inner point. Line grooves are con- 
nected Avith these. The base is not cut off in a plane surface, l)ut has 
the appearance of l)eing scooped out, beginning on the under side 
vv^ith a perpendicular surface, which slopes more and more toward the 





Fig. 35. 
BARBED AND TOGGI-E HEAD. 

West Greenland. 
Oat. No. f):«40. U.S.N.M. 



horizontal as the ends of the barbs are approached. This specimen is 
noteworthy for conserving the two types of harpoon heads in one, the 
barbs on th(^ sides, and the toggle. 

A coml)ined ])arbed and toggle harpoon head (No. 0394-1, U.S.N.M.) 
of antler from Greenland is represented in Hl'". '^>C). It is rhomboid in 
cross section, sagged downward in the middle, and delicately made. 
The blade, of iron, formerly present, but now wanting, was held in 
place ])y a rivet. The line hole, formed hy the meeting of two excava- 
tions, is curved, but not visible on the back. Line grooves short and 
whittled out. Barbs, three — two in front of the line hole and one at 
the butt. The !)arbs on the margin in front are sharp and prominent 
for such a small specimen, the cut of each being three-sided. The 
rear barb is cocked up and ])ointed, and its edges ornamented each with 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



251 



two crenate notches. Butt cut off at a sharp angle, nearly in a single 

plane; socket wide and shallow. Between the line holes and the socket 

is an ingenious combination of perforations and gutters for repairing. 

Length, 3f inches. Gift of Governor Fenck- 

ner, of Greenland. 

Of this same type and pattern, but ruder, 

is Cat. No. 45910, from Greenland, made of 

bone, and somewhat dilapidated. The hard 

bone forms the back, and the excavations 

on the belly are in the spongy portion; the 

reverse of this is usually true. The slight 

barbs on the edges are quite squareh^ sawed 

out and the single barb at the rear much 

bent upward. Length, 3f inches. Gift of 

the (yopenhagen Museum. 

A combined barbed and toggle head (Cat. 

No. 63942, U.S.N.M.) from Greenland, 

made of bone, is shown in fig. 37. Body 
flat on the belly, 
and conformed to the 
shape of the mate- 
rial on the back; an 
unwise method, be- 
cause in this case the 
spongy tissue has to 
take the strain. Sep- 
arate blade, none, the 
material being sharp- 
ened to a point and 

edge. Line holes small, set at an extraordi- 
narily acute angle to each other and barely con- 
tinued through to the back. Line grooves 
scarcely visible. Barbs, four — two broad, angu- 
lar teeth in front, one on either side, and two 
angular toothed projections behind. Socket 
shallow and wide. Butt end gouged or dished 
out, so as to give free play to the loose shaft, 
and leaving the barbs, looking from the under 
side, like a pair of -fins. Length, 4 inches. Col- 
lected by Governor Fenckner. With this exam- 
ple should be compared Nos. 63940 and 45886 — 

the former of whale's rib, the latt^er of antler. Both these examples 

are of the same general pattern, but have had iron blades. It should 

be noted as a local peculiarity that the former has a three-sided notch 

at the front barbs, the latter only a two-sided notch. 

A toggle head of ivory (Cat. No. 63943, U.S.N.M.) from Greenland, 





Fig. 36. 

BARBED AND TOGGLE HEAD. 

West Greenland. 

fJift of Governor Fenckner. Oat. No. 

63941, U.S.N.M. 



Fig. 37. 
BARBED AND TOGGLE HEAD, 

West Greenland. 

Gift of Governor Fenckner. Cat 

No. 63942, U.S.N.M. 



252 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



in shape of a compressed cone, elliptical in section, narrow and sharp 
at the point, is shown in fig. 38. The blade, of iron, is much rusted and 
held in by an iron rivet. Line hole straight through the sides in a 
plane parallel to the blade. Line grooves short and slight. There is 
one barb terminating the back, but slightly bifurcated. The socket for 
the foreshaft is wide and shallow and the butt end whittled off with a 
slight incurve. Length, 3| inches. Gift of Governor Fenckner. 
Example 63944 is broken, but similar, the butt-end 
curve being deeper and the tip not bifurcated (fig. 39). 
A toggle harpoon head (Cat. No. 63945, U.S.N.M.) 




Fig. 38. 

TOGGLE HEAD. 

West Greenland. 

Gift of Governor Fenckner 

Cat. No. 63943, U.S.N.M. 



Fig. 39. 
OLD TOGGLE HEAD. 

West Greenland. 

Gift of Governor Fenckner. 
No. 63944, U.S.N.M. 




1 



Fig. 40. 

OLD TOGGLE HEAD. 

West Greenland. 

Cat. No. 6394S, 



Gift of Governor Fenckne 
U.S.N.M. 



from Greenland, made of bone and iron, is shown in fig. 40. The 
body is conoidal, the hastate iron blade being inserted into a saw cut 
in the pointed end and held by a copper rivet. The line hole lies 
parallel to the plane of the blade; line grooves slight. The barb is 
bisected by the plane of the blade, as in many older specimens, but 
this sets the line hole perpendicular and entirely on the right face of 
the body. It is possible that the specimen had formerly two barbs. 
Shaft cavity cut off square below, the spur-like barb extending back- 



ABORiaiNAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



^53 





Fig. 41. 

TOGGLE HEAD. 

West Greenland. 

Gilt of Governor Feuckner. 

Cat. No. 63949, U.S.N.M. 



ward and upward. Length, 3^ inches; width or thickness through 
line hole, seven-eighths inch; depth, five-eighths 
inch. Gift of Governer Fenckner. Similar to this 
specimen is Cat. No. 63949 (fig. 41), of bone, in 
form of a flat hexagonal prism, the point abruptly 
cut off. Line holes cut upward through the two 
lower faces. In this example the spur is on the 
left-hand side, if the line hole be taken as under- 
neath. It is a little difiicult to understand how 
such an implement would toggle and hold. Length 
of 63949, 2i inches. Greenland. Gift of Governor 

Fenckner. 

An old toggle harpoon head 

(Cat. No. 63946, U.S.N.M.), 

from west Greenland, made of 

bone all in one piece, in section 

a rounded triangle, is shown in 

fig. 42. The blade is formed 

l)y Avhittling the material to 

a pyramidal point with four 

faces. The line hole is bored 

straight through in the plane 

of the blade, enlarged and the rear edges Avhit- 

tled down for line grooves. 

Bar])s, two, in fish-tail pat- 
tern on the back. Socket, 

three - fourths inch deep ; 

butt, whittled out with slight 

incurve; length, 2f inches. 

Gift of Governor Fenckner. 

Example 63947 (fig. 43), 

from the same localit}^, is 

a modern specimen of bone, 

on the same order, ])ut an 
iron blade was inserted at the point. The 
line-hole cavities pierce the back, the grooves 
are deeper, and the butt end is scooped out. 
Length of 6394T is 2f inches; from Greenland. 
Gift of Governor Fenckner. 

A toggle head from western Greenland (Cat. 
No. 63948, U.S.N.M.), in shape of a long rect- 
angular pyramid with rectangular cones, is 
shown in fig. 44. Point formed by whittling 
down the sides. The blade slit lies in the plane 
of the long diagonal of the body. Line hole 



Fig. 42. 

SMALL TOGGLE HEAD. 

West Greenland. 

Gift of Governor Fenckner. 

Cat. No. 63946, U.S.N.M. 




Fig. 43. 
OLD TOGGLE HEAD. 

West Greenland. 



Gift of Govei-nor Fenckner. Cat 
No. 63947, U.S.N.M. 



254 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 




Fig. 44. 
OLD TOGGLE HEAD. 

West Greenland. 
Gift of Governor Fenckner. 
63948, U.S.N.M. 



run in perpendicular to the two lower sides or faces, having slight line 

grooves. Barbs two, one on the right mar- 
gin, one on the left, their tips Ijang in the 
bisecting plane of the toggle head. Socl^et 
extending into the line hole. Butt end whit- 
tled away equally above and below. Length, 
2f inches. Gift of Governor Fenckner. Cat. 
No. 63950 is of the same type, 2i inches long. 
A grave relic (Cat. No. 63950, U.S.N.M.) 
representing a small toggle head of a harpoon 
from Greenland, the gift of Governor Fenck- 
ner, is shown in lig. 45. 

The body, rhom])oidal in section, the back 
and front being about 
alike, is made of a seg- 
ment from the co- 
lumnar portion of a 
bone. The fact that 
both sides are equally 
hard necessitates the 
forming of the shaft 
socket in the hollow 
part of the bone. The 
barbs are cut out of the two angles or wings 
on the two sides of the body. The line hole 
is interesting, being ef- 
fected by cutting two 
holes perpendicularly 
into the two faces of 
the belly, meeting in 
the hollow part of the 
bone. Each of these is 

flanked with a shallow gutter in which lies the 
line. The forming of a toggle head out of the 
middle column of a bone instead of a piece of 
ivory, antler, or solid bone is rare. Length, 2 
inches. 

An old toggle head (Cat. No. 63951, U.S.N.M.) 
from west Greenland is shown in lig. 46. The 
point has been bi'oken off, but enough is left 
to show a small portion of the blade slit. It 
belongs to the type of specimen 45855, and 
the socket in the base for the foreshaft is 
flanked by two equal barbs. A common type in harpoon heads from 
this area. The line hole on the end sidv is formed by the meeting of 





Fig. 45. 

SMALL TOGGLE HEAD. 

West Greenland. 
Tf Governor Fenckner. Cat. 
No. 63950, U.S.N.M. 



Fig. 46. 

OLD TOGGLE HEAD. 

West Greenland. 
Gift of Governor Fenckner, 
No. 63951. U.S.N.M. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



255 



Fig. 47. 
SMALL TOGGLE HEAD. 

West Greenland. 

Gift of Governor Fenckner 
Cat. No. C.3952. U.S.N.M. 



two conical bores, afterwards smoothed down so as not to injure the 

line. This method of forming- the hole by the meet- 
ing of two separate cones is well 
known to students of archseology. 
Four small perforations are seen 
between the line hole and the 
socket, drilled for the purpose of 
stopping the further opening of a 
crack in the base. 

A small toggle head of bone (Cat. 
No. 63952, U.S.N.M.), blackened 
by age, from west Greenland is 
shown in lig. 47. It is square in 
cross section, one angle extending 
from tip of the point to tip of the 
barb and having a pyramidal point. 
There is no blade. Line holes 
bored straight in from the two 
lower surfaces, line grooves short 
and deep. Barb one, socket half 
an inch deep, butt end beveled off diagonally from 
lower edge 'to upper edge. Length, 2i inches. Col- 
lected by Governor Fenckner. 

Cat. No. 63963 in the U. S. National Museum is a 
harpoon of bone from southwestern Greenland. It 
consists of two parts, the shank and the hinged 
toggle. The shank is pierced at one end to act as a 
hinge and at the other end in two places for the 
attachment of a shaft. The toggle is spindle shaped, 
hollowed on one side, and pierced with three holes to 
facilitate the hinging. This specimen is evidently an 
imitation or adaptation in bone of the iron fluke in 
the harpoons of the whalers. Length of shank, 4^ 
inches. Gift of Governor Fenckner. 

The smaller harpoon shaft (Cat. No. 72566, 
U.S.N.M.), from southern Greenland, is ilhistrated 
in figs. 48 and 49. This figure is introduced for the 
purpose of showing the details of the shaft, which are 
quite local. The loose shaft is made of bone or ivor}^, 
square at the base and socketed to fit over a small pro- 
jection on the foreshaf t. Two holes are bored through 
the former, and through these and two in the end of 
the shaft a stout rawhide thong passes and is tightly 
drawn to form an elastic spring, useful in the ship- 
ping and unshipping of the loose shaft. What answers to the f oreshaft 



Fig. 48. 

SHAFT OF SMALLER 
HARPOON. 

South Greenland, 

Collected by Chief Sig- 
nal Officer, U. S. A. 
Cat. No. 72566, U.S.N.M. 



256 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



in this spccimoii is simply a cap of ivory with a little projection on the 
top. The hinging line is not attached to it in any waA . The ivory 
pegs (IriA'en into the shaft near its lower end are for the throwing 
stick, which is peculiar to this region, and for the e3^elets used in 
tightening the line when the toggle is in place and ready for action. 

Especial attention is drawn to the lower end of 
the shaft, on which are pegged or riveted two plates 
of ivory, which not only resemble feathers on an 
arrow, ])iit must perform a similar fimction. The 
foreshaft is so light that it could be of little use in 
giving directness to the flight of the weapon, but 
the feathers of ivory fastened on at the end would 
remedy this defect and steady the shaft in the air. 
It is thought b}^ some that the existence of these 
plates of ivory on the l^ase of the shaft is an indica- 
tion of the descent of the harpoon from the arrow. 

A kaiak lance (Cat. No. 74126, U.S.N.M.) from 
Holstenberg, Greenland, was col- 
lected by Capt. J. W. Collins. 
The shaft is of pine wood, ellipti- 
cal in section, tapering in both 
directions from the hand rest and 
at the front, and swells out to tit 
neatly the foreshaft or cap of 
bone. Upon the narrow side of 
the shaft in front of the middle 
portion are the finger rests, which 
consist of a peg of wood driven into a hole on one 
side and on the other a flat portion of bone set in a 
quadrangular mortise, and having" at the outer end 
on one side a groove for the finger. 

The piece of bone corresponding to the foreshaft 
is not more than half an inch in length, perfectly 
flat across the outer end, and at its middle portion 
is a slight projection or pivot. The loose shaft is of 
narwhal tusk, flattened in cross section and mor- 
tised into a piece of bone in form of a truncated 
cone. Its widest portion, with a slight socket in the 
middle, sits flat upon the cap or foreshaft. This 
particular combination is of a more advanced type 
than the ordinary ball-and-socket joint with the 
Cum])eriand Sound Eskimo, growing out of the fact that these Green- 
land Eskimo have been for many centuries in contact with the Scan- 
dinavians. In this case the two flattened surfaces cause the lashing to 
act as a spring holding the foreshaft or blade piece straight in front 




Fig. 49. 

FORESHAFT AND LOOSE 
SHAFT OF FIGURE 48, 




Fig. 50. 
OLD TOGGLE HEAD. 

Upernavik, Greenland. 

Collected by Theodore Holm. 

Cat. No. 13037L U.S.N.M. 



ABOEIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



257 



of the yhaft. These two parts are united ])y means of a bit of raw 
hide passing through two holes in the foreshaf t 
and three holes in the loose shaft a foot from 
the end. The lashing is similar to that of the 
Cumberland Sound types, with slight local dif- 
ferences of administration. In front of the 
blade piece is the blade of iron, lanceolate in 
form, with truncated base set in a saw cut at 
the tip and held fast b}^ a copper rivet. This 
lance is for stabbing the walrus or whale at 
close quarters from the kaiak. Length of shaft, 
62 inches; loose shaft, 8i inches; blade, 3i inches. 

An old toggle harpoon head (Cat. No. 130371 , 
U.S.N.M.) from Upernavik. Greenland, is 
shown in fig. 50. It has an iron blade riveted 
on to the front of the body, parallel to its | 
broadest diameter. The line holes were bored | 
in from two directions, and apparenth^ per- ^ 
forated the body after the manner of the toggle | 
head used on the Amur River and figured in ^ i I 

Schrenck. Length of body, Sf inches. Gift ill 
of Theodore Holm. e. ^ ^ 

A harpoon for killing whales (Cat. No. 90103), | | ' ' 
used by the Little Whale River Indians on the ^ % % 
coast of Labrador, is shown in fig. 51. The I i § 
shaft is of wood, the foreshaf t of bone. The o -^ ' 
base of it is wedge-shaped, and fits into the slit J 
at the end of the shaft, being held in place § 
by a lashing of sinew cord. On the end of | 
the foreshaft fits the toggle head, with iron g 
blade held fast by two rivets. The body of ^ 
the toggle head is rectangular in cross section. 
The line hole passes through the sides and is 
not seen on the lower part. The wide barbed 
end is cut into three or four tooth-shaped parts. 
The line is of rawhide, plaited. The peculiarity 
of this harpoon is a board, somewhat circular 
in form, on the lower end of the shaft, which 
acts as a drag to the wounded animal, in place 
of a seal-skin float. The line passes between 
this board and the shaft, and has a handle or 
toggle fastened at the other end to be held in 
the hand of the fisherman.^ 

If Hearne be correct, the Eskimo west of 



Lucien Turner, Hudson Bay Eskimo, 1894, p. 314, figs. 138, 139. 



258 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 

Hudson Bay have no other method of catching" lish, unless it be by 
spears and darts; for no appearance of nets was discovered either at 
their tents or on any part of the shore. This is the case with all the 
Eskimo on the west side of Hudson Bay; spearing in summer and an- 
gling in winter are the only methods they have yet devised to catch fish, 
though at times their whole dependence for support is on that article.^ 

HARPOONS OF THE CENTRAL ESKIMO. 

Coming to the central Eskimo, Boas says of them that they inhabit 
the northeastern part of the continent and the eastern islands of the 
Arctic- American archipelago. In Smith Sound they inhabit the most 
northern countries visited by man, and their remains are often found 
at its northern outlet. The southern and western boundaries are the 
countries about Fort Churchill, the middle part of Back River, and 
the coast west of Adelaide Peninsula.^ In this monograph will be 
found an excellent bibliography of that area, which has been famous 
in historic times for the efforts made there to find the northwest pas- 
sage between the two great oceans. 

The harpoon or principal lance (unahk, Kane) of the Eskimo is 
attached to the sealing line. The rod or staff* is divided at right angles 
in two pieces, which are neatly jointed or hinged with tendon strips, 
but so braced by the manner in which the tendon is made to cross and 
bind in the lashing that, except when the two parts are severed by 
lateral pressure, they form but a single shaft. The point, generally an 
arrow-head of bone, has a socket to receive the end of the shaft; it dis- 
engages itself readily from its place, but still remains fast to the line. 
Thus when the kaiaker has struck his prey, the shaft escapes the risk 
of breaking from a pull against the grain b}^ bending at the joint, and 
the point is carried free by the animal as he dives. At the right cen- 
ter of gravity of the harpoon, that point at which a cudgel player 
would grasp his staff, a neatl}^ arranged cestus or holder (noon-sok) 
fits itself on the shaft. It serves to give the kaiaker a good grip when 
casting his weapon, but slides off" from it and is left in the hand at the 
moment of drawing back his arm.^ 

In the weapons used for killing their game there is considerable 
variety, according to the animal they are pursuing. The most simple 
of these weapons is the ''oonak" (Parry), which they use only for 
killing the small seal. It consists of a light staff of wood 4 feet in 
length, having at one end the point of a narwhal's horn, from 8 to 10 
inches long, firmly secured by rivets and wooldings; at the other end 
is a smaller and less effective point of the same kind. To prevent 
losing the ivory part, in case of the wood breaking, a stout thong 

^Hearne, Journey, etc., London, 1795, p. 159. 

2 Franz Boas, The Central Eskimo, 1888, p. 414. 

^E. K. Kane, The Grinnell Expedition, New York, 1854, pp. 478 and 479. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 259 

runs along the whole length of the wood, each end passing through a 
hole in the ivory, and the bight secured in several places to the staff. 

A considerable degree of ingenuity is displayed in an appendage 
called ''siatko," consisting of a piece of bone 3 inches long, having a 
point of iron at one end and at the other a small hole or socket to 
receive the point of the oonak. Through the middle of this instrument 
is secured the allek, or line of thong, of which ever}^ man has, when 
sealing, a couple of coils, each from 4 to 6 fathoms long, hanging at 
his back. These are made of the skin of the oguke, as in Greenland, 
and are admirably adapted to the purpose, both on account of strength 
and the property which they possess of preserving their pliability even 
in the most intense frost/ 

Formerly the harpoon (unang, Boas) consisted of a shaft having at 
one end an ivory point firmly attached b}" thongs and rivets, the point 
tapering toward the end. The point was slanting on one side, so as 
to form almost an oblique cone. Thus it facilitated the separation of 
the harpoon head from the unang. On the opposite end of the shaft 
another piece of ivory was attached, generall}^ forming a knob. The 
material used in making the shaft was wood, bone, or ivory, according 
to the region in which it was manufactured. In Iglulik and in Aggo 
the narwhal's horn was the favorite material for the whole implement, 
a single horn being sufficient to make a whole shaft. Wherever Avood 
could be procured small pieces were ingeniously lashed together. As 
the shaft is apt to be broken by the struggles of the animal when 
struck by the weapon, it was strengthened by a stout thong running 
along the whole length of the shaft. ^ 

A strange method of hunting is reported by Ross^ as practiced by 
the Netchillirmiut. Eight men slowly approached the basking seal 
until it raised its head, when those in front stopped and shouted as 
loud as they could, on which three others ran up with incredible 
swiftness, and the leader struck it with the spear. ^ 

Boas says that when the smaller bays are sufficiently frozen to 
permit, the hunters will visit the edge of the newly formed floe in 
order to shoot the seals, which are afterwards secured b}^ the retriev- 
ing harpoon.* 

A fine old toggle head (Cat. No. 8278) from Smith Sound, was collected 
by Dr. I. I. Hayes. The body is of ivory, thin, spatulate in form, 
and lenticular in cross section. The blade of iron is almost concealed 
in a deep saw cut and fastened with an iron rivet. The line hole has 
been bored out with a drill that was too small and enlarged by cutting. 
One side of the body having split off, and the other side cracked, the 

^ Parry, Second Voyage, London, 1824, p. 507. 
^Narrative, etc., London, 1835, II, p. 451. 
^ Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 485. 

* Compare Murdoch's account of the retrieving harpoon, Sixth Annual Report of 
the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 420. 



2()0 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



IS looptM 




m^ 



Eskimo has ino-eiiioush^ drilled a series of holes along the margins and 
repaired the socket by means of sealskin thongs rolled backward and 
forward. The line in this case is a coarse thong of walrus hide, which 
through the line hole and fastened by a wrapping with a 
smaller thong, in which the Eskimo has exhausted 
his ingenuity by a variety of knots and splices. 

A combined barbed and toggle harpoon head of 
bone (Cat. No. 8279 U.S.N.M.) from Upernavik, 
Greenland, is shown in lig. d'2. Body long, irregular 
cylinder, whose diameter varies in proportion to the 
strain at each point, cut off quite abruptly at the point. 
The economy of material is noteworth3^ Blade cut 
shallow ; iron blade broken off', but its lower margin 
remains in the cut, held in place by means of an iron 
rivet. Line hole small, curved up and strengthened 
on the outside by an additional thickness of the body. 
Line grooves slight. Barbs, two, the front one a very 
prominent hook, triangular 
underneath, its rear margin 
also a shallow hook with 
rounded edge. In this respect 
the specimen is unique in the 
U. S. National Museum. The 
rear barb is cocked up and 
pointed. In the tip of this 
barb is a hole half an inch 
deep, and three small perfo- 
rations for rivets are to be 
seen above it. The precise 
use of these perforations is not known. Socket 
an inch deep, the butt end whittled off' with a 
slight incurve. Length, 6 inches; diameter, 
three-fourths inch. Collected by Dr. I. I. 
Hayes. 

A loose head of a lance (Cat. No. 10136, 
U.S.N.M.) is given in fig. 53. A careful in- 
spection of this specimen, and others like it, 
will show that it lacks the essential qualities 
of a harpoon, namely, of being hinged to the 
end of the shaft and of retrieving. There is 
neither barb nor toggle on this specimen or 

others of the same class. The hinged lance, either in the form of a 
weapon to be thrust or of one to be thrown from hand or bow or 
throwing stick, is exceedingly rare. Only in the areas where immense 
sea mammals are hunted is it thought necessary to guard in this way 




OLD BARBED AND TOG- 
GLE HEAD. 

Upernavik, Green- 
land. 
Collected by I. 1. Hayes. 
Cat. No. 8279, U.S.N.M. 




Fig. 53. 
LOOSE HEAD OF A LANCE. 

Repulse Bay. 

Collected by C. F. Hall. Cat. No. 

10136, U.S.N.M. 



Report of U. S. National Museum, 1900.— Mason 



Plate 6. 




Complete Seal Harpoon, Cumberland Sound. 
Collected by George Y. Nickerson. 
NAT MUS lyOO 18 ^'"•'"'■■''■^■^■^■NM- 



ABOEIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



261 



against breaking the shaft. Indeed, it will be found that the Eskimo 
on the other side of the continent do not hinge the lance head, but 
merely socket it and leave it in the animal stabbed. Collected by 
Captain C. F. Hall. 

An old, much weather-beaten toggle head of bone (Cat. No. 10404, 
U.S.N.M.), without blade, from Repulse Bay, is shown in hg. 54. 
The body is perfectly flat on the back and uniformly ridged below, so 
that in section the form is that of a hat with narrow rim. The l)liide 
slit in the truncated tip shallow and wide and there is no show of ri\'ets. 
Linehole, large and straight through, with wide grooves before and 
behind it. There were evidently two barbs, but after some mending 
one has disappeared. The butt was beveled nearly in a plane surface. 
Sockets half an inch deep. Length, 3f inches. Col- 
lected by Captain C. F. Hall. 

Example 19519, in the U. S. National Museum, 
Plate 6, is a complete toggle harpoon for seals, from 
Cumberland Sound region, collected by George Y. 
Nickerson. The shaft (qijuqtenga) is of hard pine 
wood, quadrangular in section, with rounded corners, 
thick in the middle, and tapering toward either end. 
The foreshaft (qatirn) or socket piece, about 2 inches 
long, is of walrus ivory, mortised neatly upon a tenon 
at the end of the shaft. In longitudinal section it is 
in the shape of a tanged lance blade, with the point 
truncated. The upper and outer end of the qatirn 
has a rounded socket for the reception of the loose 
shaft, to be described. At the lower end of the shaft 
is an ivor}^ cap, set on and held in place by two wooden 
dowels. Upon the narrow margin of the shaft, absent 
in this specimen, is set a hand rest (tikagung), as a 
stop for the hand of the hunter when making his 
thrust. At right angles to the tikagung is a peg or 
button of ivory, which fits into the telliqbing or eyelet 
piece of ivory on the line. The loose shaft is a stout piece of ivory, 
spindle shaped, with a long taper in front and a very short tapering 
butt end. This fits like a ball at the socket joint into the socket. 

At the end of the qatirn or foreshaft two holes are bored through 
the loose shaft 3 inches from the socket joint. Corresponding holes 
are bored through the shaft 4 inches from the front end. An inch 
farther back from these two holes two other holes are bored near 
together. 

Looking at this apparatus from one side, a seal-skin thong passes 
from tne back forward through the upper left-hand hole in the shaft, 
up through the left-hand hole in the loose shaft, back and through the 
upper right-hand hole in the shaft, and up and through the right-hand 



Fig.M. 

TOGGLE HEAD. 

Repulse Bay. 

Collected by C. F. Hall. 

Cat. No. 10404. U.S.N.M. 



262 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



hole in the loose shaft, and down to the lower right-hand hole in the 
shaft, through and back through the lower left-hand hole in the shaft, 
half way round the shaft, and gathered in a loose knot through the 
lower bend of the thong on the front side of the shaft. This ingenious 
joint deserves especial attention. It is put in place while wet or green, 
and by its shrinking forms a close hinge for holding the loose shaft in 
the socket of the foreshaft. When a large animal is struck and the 
loose shaft rammed into its body, the violent motion, instead of break- 
ing the brittle ivory, unbends the ball and socket joint, 
the thong serving as a hinge. 

The toggle head (tokang) is of walrus ivory, fiat on 
one side and obtusel}^ angular on the other. On this 
same side are two large angular cuts, forming a perfo- 
ration entirely through but not piercing the back. 
Barbs, two. 

The line (alirn) is of stout rawhide bent through the 
hole in the toggle head, and the end is joined to the 
standing part by being sewed together, and also seized 
or wrapped at either end of this sewing. On the alirn, 
at a point exactly corresponding to the hand rest, is 
sewed or run the teliqbing, which is a somewhat flat 
piece of ivory, having five holes for the stitching or 
braid of sinew and a quadrangular hole cut in the broad 
part to fit over the ivory peg on the side of the shaft, 
which draws the line perfectly tight and holds the toggle 
head on the tip end of the loose shaft. The line may be 
continued to an}^ length, where it terminates in a loop, 
and one or more bladders (avatang) may be attached to 
it. Length of shaft, 41 inches; loose shaft, 16 inches; 
tokang, 5 inches. 

The head (Cat. No. 25651, U.S.N.M.) of a whale har- 
poon from Hudson Bay is shown in fig. 55. It is made 
of walrus ivor}^, and probably by machinery. The U. S. 
National Museum possesses a large number of harpoon 
heads of this type. The angle on the back is sharp and the front is 
hexagonal. The specimen conforms to a model or type as if made in 
large numbers for trade with the Eskimo. 

The blade is of iron and neath^ fitted into a socket in the bluntly 
pointed tip end of the body. At the upper inner corner of the blade 
is a perforation for the reception of a small line of sinew, which 
serves to retain the blade if it becomes detached from its slit. The 
socket is a shallow conical cavity, made to fit on the outer end of the 
loose shaft. The butt end is a long bevel, slightly incurved. The line 
hole is made with great care, being a large triangular opening with 
ample grooves on either side for the play of the line. The material is 



Fig. 55. 

HEAD OF WHALE 
HARPOON. 

Hudson Bay. 
Collected by J. H. 
Bartlett. Cat. No. 
25654. U.S.N.M. 



Report of U, S. National Museum, 1900.— Mason. 



Plate 7. 




ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



263 



cut away economically at every point, so as to protect the line from 
abrasion. There is no separate becket, but the end of the line is 
spliced into itself to form a loop. 

No. 25554 is similar to the foregoing in most respects. The outline 
is a little more artistic, but the general form and functioning of the 
parts are precisely the same. Length of blade, 2i inches; length of 
body, 6 inches. 

Plate 7 is a typical broad toggle harpoon head (Cat. No. 34064, 
U.S.N.M.) from Cumberland Sound. The ivory body is Ungulate in 
outline, nearly flat on the back, and rounded beneath for line hole and 
socket. Blade triangular, oblong, set 1 inch 
into the saw cut, and held in place by a large 
copper rivet. No blade hole is present. Line 
hole well back, large, bent up a little, and run- 
ning into very deep line grooves. Socket wide 
and shallow. Barbs, two, formed by the bifur- 
cation of the back. Butt end curved in and 
somewhat gouged out. Length, 5f inches. 
Collected by Ludwig Kumlein. The head fits 
back downward into a cover carved of a piece 
of pine wood. The point lies under two loops 
of baleen passed through the wood and f rapped. 
A rawhide thong fastened into the butt serves 
to wrap the toggle and cover together. Other 
specimens in the Museum, collected in the same 
locality by Mr. Kumlein, have precisely the 
same characteristics. The specimens are more 
slender. It will be noted that the blade, the 
barbs, or spurs at the base, and the bottom or 
inside of the line hole are in parallel planes. 
This is to be regarded as the old or primitive 
style. In the more modern heads, as will be 
seen, the line hole is perpendicular to the plane 
of the blade. Front and side views of a large 
toggle head from the Amur are given to show how the old type sur- 
vives in out-of-the-way places far apart, while the new type holds the 
intermediate localities. (Schrenck, Plate 42.) 

The head of a whale lance (Cat. No. 34067, U.S.N.M.) from Cum- 
berland Gulf, collected by Ludwig Kumlein, is shown in fig. 56. The 
body is of ivory, in the form of a flattened conoid. The blade of iron 
is leaf -shaped, set into a saw cut at the point in the plane of the widest 
diameter of the head, and held in place by a brass rivet. The shaft 
socket is a deep cone. On either side of the head a line hole is made 
by two borings, one vertical and the other horizontal and larger. Into 
each a line or thong of seal hide is drawn, with a knot on the upper 




Fig. 56. 

HEAD OF WHALiE LANCE. 

Cumberland Sound. 

Collected by L. Kumlein. Cat. No. 

34067, U.S.N.M. 



264 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 




end which fits into the horizontal bore and forms a button or stop. 
These two thongs unite about a foot below the head to form one con- 
tinuous line. Length of head, 3f inches. 

A broad, flat harpoon head (Cat. No. 34069, 
U.S.N.M.)of w^alrus ivory (tokang), taken from 
a large Balcena mysticetiis caught in Cumberland 
Sound in 1878, is shown in fig. 57. This specimen 
was collected by Ludwig Kumlein. The body is 
Ungulate in form, with a sharper curve below. 
The iron blade, broken off at the point, is deep, 
set into a saw cut, and riveted with iron. Near 
the left-hand corner is bored a blade hole for a 
securing line. The 
line hole is large, 
curved upward, and 
the grooves are deep 
for the thick rawhide 
line, but they do not 
perforate the head 
and they are not 
seen on the back of 
the toggle head. The 
butt end is gouged 
out in a spoon-shaped 
cavity and is bifur- 
cated to form two 
split at their hinder 
extremity. The tips of the barbs have 
ornamental notches. The socket below the 
plane of the barbs is wide and shallow. 
Mr. Kumlein believes that this head was 
thrust into the whale while it was a year- 
ling, as the Eskimo do not attack a large 
one with their own weapons. Length, 4 
inches.^ 

I A loose head of a seal lance (Cat. No. 34068, 
U.S.N.M.) is shown in fig. 58. Body is of 
ivory, blade pentagonal in shape, and fast- 
ened in with a rivet. The bod}^ is conoid in 
form, with a square base. The socket for 
the end of the foreshaft is conical, and 

alongside of this at the margin two holes are bored, opposite each other, 
perpendicular for a notch, at which point they are met by two other 



Fig. 57. 

TOGGLE HEAD, TAKEN FRc»M 
DEAD AVHALE. 

Cumberland Sound. 
Collected by Ludwig Kumlein. 
after Franz Boas. Cat. No. 34069. 
U.S.N.M. 

barbs, and these are 




Fig. 58. 

LOOSE HEAD OF LANCE. 

Cumberland Sound. 

Collected by Ludwig Kumlein. Cat. No. 

34068. U.S.N.M. 



^ Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 490, fig. 422. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



265 



holes bored in horizontally. Into these holes fit two rawhide thongs, 
by means of which the loose heads are attached firmly to the end of 
the shaft. The noticeable feature about this specimen is the thor- 
oughly aboriginal style of boring the holes and of attaching the thongs. 
The slit is cut near the end of the thong, and 
through this the outer end passes, being bent 
backward. This forms a button which fits exactly 
into the horizontal hole on the side of the head. 
At the other end of the thongs in the drawing are 
shown methods of splicing practiced by the central 
Eskimo. There is nothing which exhibits their 
ingenuity more effectively than the way in which 
the difficulties are overcome by simple processes. 
A lance head (Cat. No. 340Y6, U.S.N.M.) from 
Cumberland Sound is shown in fig. 60. It can not 
be called either a toggle head or a barb, since it 
possesses neither characteristic. It is simply a 
pivoted lance head. Body, flat. Blade, of iron, 
irregularly rhomboidal, made to 
fit into the saw cut by a nail head 
driven under the edge, held in 
place by an iron rivet. 

There is no line hole in the 
harpoon acceptation, but on 
either side of the socket a hole 
is bored forward in the plane of 
the blade and met by a larger 
one bored inward half an inch 
from the butt end. Into each 
hole a rawhide line is made fast 
by means of a knot peculiar to 

the Eskimo, effected by cutting a slit a short distance 
from the end of the line and tucking the end back- 
ward through the slit. This knot will enter the larger 
hole on the side, but will not pull through the smaller 
longitudinal one. The socket is conical, wide, and 
fully an inch deep. Length, 2 inches. Collected in 
Cumberland Sound by Ludwig Kumlein. Similar 
to this are 84068 and 34077 (fig. 59), and Boas figures 
another specimen after Kumlein's drawings. 
Cat. No. 73529 in the U. S. National Museum is a whale lance 
(anguvigang), from Cumberland Sound. The shaft (qijuqtenga) is of 
hard pine wood, possibly from a ship. Cross section elliptical and 
flattened. It is tapering in the middle in both directions. The fore- 








Fig. 59. 

LOOSE HEAD OK LANCE. 

Cumberland Sound. 

Collected by Ludwig Kunileiu 

Cat. No. 34077. U.S.N.M. 



Fig. 60. 
LOOSE HEAD OF LANCE. 

Cumberland Sound. 
Collected by Ludwig 
Kumlein. Cat. No.34076, 
U.S.N.M. 



266 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



shaft (qatirn) is a short head of bone mortised upon the end of the shaft, 
truncated arrow shaped, in longitudinal cross section. On the narrow 
side of the shaft, about one-third of the distance from the foreshaft, is 
a hand rest (tikagung) made of a quadrangular bit of bone. This is 
perforated from side to side, laid against the shaft and lashed with a 









Fig. 61. 

OLD TOGGLE HEAD WITH STONE BLADE. 

Cumberland Sound. 
Collected by Geo. Y. Nickerson. Cat. No. 19521, U.S.N.M. 

strip of baleen. At right angles to this on the broad side of the shaft 
is a peg protruding, resembling the peg for the line, but it is evidently 
an added part, as it has no function. 

The loose shaft of ivory has a blunt pivot on the inner end which 
fits into a socket in the foreshaft to form the ball-and-socket joint 
(Igaming). The head is irregular, hexagonal in cross section and in a saw 
cut in the front end a leaf -shaped blade of iron is inserted and riveted. 
The loose shaft and the foreshaft are hinged together, as in other speci- 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 267 

mens, by a thong of rawhide. This ingenious joint is most effective 
as a universal hinge. It can be easily unloosed and made tighter. 
By a universal hinge it is meant that in every direction the loose shaft 
is sustained in a line with the shaft by the rigidit}^ of the rawhide, 
which is not so strong, however, but that when an extraordinary strain 
is placed upon the loose shaft the rawhide will give wa}^ in any direction 
and allow the pivot to come out of the socket and save the apparatus 
from breakage. No long line is used with this form of apparatus. A 
similar specimen is figured from the Berlin Ethnological ]Museum, by 
Dr. Franz Boas.^ Length of shaft, 43 inches; loose shaft, 16 inches. 
The harpoon of the Cumberland area, as shown by the previous 
descriptions and illustrations, is far more primitive and less affected by 
contact with Europe than that of Greenland or Hudson Bay type. In 
closing a stud}^ of this region attention is called to fig. 61, Catalogue 
No. 19521 in the U . S. National Museum. It can not certainly be defined 
as a barbed head, nor as a toggle head. It has the form of the toggle 
head, but the line hole, instead of passing through the body above the 
socket, is a perforation in the end of the spur. A hole has been bored 
through this end in a line parallel to the axis of the body and is met 
by another perforation on the side of the spur. The connecting line 
evidentl}^ passed up through this opening and was toggled by means 
of an Eskimo knot formed b}^ cutting a slot near the end of the thong 
and turning the end back through the slit. The socket does not differ 
from that of other harpoons. The head, however, is a large and lan- 
ceolate blade of chipped stone, reminding one of the whale lance blades 
brought home by Ray from Point Barrow and described b}^ Murdoch. 
The tang of this blade fits upon an offset at the end of the body and is 
held in place by a knot, also of sinew braid. The perforation in the 
spur for the connecting line is almost unique in the collections of the 
U. S. National Museum. One other specimen has a perforation at 
this point, fig. 52, Catalogue No. 8279. In this specimen, however, 
the perforation seems to have no function, since through the body 
of the toggle head there is a regular line hole with line grooves. 

HARPOONS OP ARCTIC ALASKA. 

The situation, the climate, the people, and the natural resources of 
this area are minutely set forth by Murdoch. The harpoon, as will 
be seen, is related to all these. In his treatise on Point Barrow Eskimo 
the last-named writer describes and figures both seal darts and toggle 
harpoons, and these are included in our subject. He says that the 
Eskimo use, to capture the smaller marine animals, a dart or small 
harpoon having a loose barbed head of bone fitted into a socket at the 
end of the shaft, to which it is attached by a line of greater or less 

^ Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 496, fig. 432. 



268 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 

lenotli. It i.s alwa^^s contrived so that when the head is struck into 
the animal the shaft is detached and acts as a drag. At Point Barrow 
only the small form of dart is used. In ancient times a larger weapon, 
with bladder on the side of the shaft, was employed. All kinds of 
marine animals are also pursued with toggle harpoons of the same 
general type, but of different patterns for different animals. They are 
divided into two classes, those intended for throwing and those which 
are thrust with the hand. Both classes agree in having only the head 
attached permanently to the line fftted loosely to the end of the shaft, 
and arranged so that when struck into the animal it is detached from 
the shaft and turns under the skin at right angles to the line. The 
harpoons of this arctic Alaskan area are then explained and figured in 
great detail by Murdoch.^ 

The same writer says that before the introduction of iron it was 
discovered that when the blade of the toggle harpoon is inserted par- 
allel to the line hole the toggle head is less liable to pull out. At 
any rate, by a kind of necessity, the blade part of the oldest forms is 
transverse to the line hole. Also, by the exigencies of the broad 
bod}^ of bone and ivory, the blade of the Amur and eastern Eskimo 
regions is inserted parallel to the line hole. 

Late in the autumn, when the pack is driven toward the land by 
the north wind, the ice forms rapidly. The hunters travel ov-er it, 
as soon as it will bear their weight, to look for the "alloos," or 
breathing places, formed in the new ice when quite thin; this is gently 
raised b}^ the animal's head into a slight mound, and a small hole 
opened with its nose and breath. These spots would escape notice 
were it not for the congealing of the breath forming a little hummock 
of hoar frost on the surface. It is this which reveals to the hunter an 
"alloo,'' or breathing place of a seal. Ever}^ seal has not its own 
breathing places, but more probablv the instinct of the animal (causes 
it to form man}^ when the ice is thin, and many are frozen up for 
want of attention. Later in the season, as the ice grows thicker, it 
floats higher, leaving a larger and longer air space beneath, as the 
seal, when it visits the '"alloo," scratches away the ice on the under 
side. 

By these places the hunter takes his position, and, for fear the seal 
will catch the scent of his person, he carries a small three-legged stool 
on which he squats, taking his position on the lee side of the seal 
hole, watching and listening for the game. Of course he can not see 
the seal, but if there is a little wind he can see the vapor of its breath 
and hear the slight ripple in the water caused by the act of breathing. 

When the hunter discovers the presence of the seal, his spear is sent 
crashing through the thin dome of ice into the animal, and so small 

1 Point Barrow Expedition, 1892, pp. 218-240. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 269 

are the quarters that the seal is seldom missed. The ice is then broken 
away and the hole enlarged until the game can be removed, this work 
being done with the ever-present ice pick. 

The implements used in this method of hunting seal are a harpoon, 
to the staff of which is attached an ice pick, a line, and a stool to stand 
on. The stool serves the purpose of keeping the feet of the hunter 
dry, for newly formed ice is always very damp, and the long, patient 
waiting by the alloos would wet the feet of the hunter, after which he 
could not remain because of the intense cold, for furs are little protec- 
tion if wet. At this season open water is formed b}^ the current 
moving the ice, which presses together, leaving small spaces of open 
water. Seal passing these spaces will often come to the surface to 
breathe, and at such times fall an eass^ pre}^ to the hunter's rifle and 
retrieving harpoon. 

I am indebted for the information given above to Captain Heren- 
deen, who lived man\^ years at Point Barrow. He also says that whale 
fishing is carried on in the months of April and May. 

On arriving home from the great spring reindeer hunt, about the 
1st of April, the Eskimo have a few days of feasting and consultation. 
The wooden dishes of steaming venison are carried to the council 
house, *'Cuddigon Igloo," where the men are gathered to talk over the 
coming whale hunt, and the sages tell of the conditions of ice required 
to make a favorable and successful season. 

The wooden part of everything ^hat is put into the umiak or freight 
boat is whittled or scraped off" clean and smooth, so that the wood 
looks bright and new. 

The women prepare the sealskin floats or pokes, as the}' are called 
by the American whalemen, as follows: A seal is captured and the skin 
cut around the head near the eyes. When the skin is cut free from 
the blubber and turned back, and the flippers are reached, they are 
unjointed near the body of the seal and the process continued until the 
carcass is removed. The blubber is scraped clean from the flesh side 
of the skin, and the bones carefully removed from the flippers. This 
is a delicate piece of work, for to cut the skin would ruin it for a 
float. After this is accomplished all natural vents to the body are 
closed by t^dng them around an ivor}^ stud made for the purpose. 
Through one of these a hole is drilled to inflate the poke. The 
neck is passed over a stick about 6 inches long by 1 inch in diameter, 
then sewed up and the stick brought up to the seam and ver}' firmly 
lashed with braided sinew. The poke is now blown up and stretched 
as much as possible by rolling and standing on it. Again it is scraped 
to remove the oil, and hung up in its inflated state to dry. After a 
few da3's it is oiled with the oil from the stone lamp. This dries more 
quickly than raw oil, and when dried again a coating is formed which 
is quite impervious to water. The lashing is now removed from the 



270 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 

neck, the skin carefully turned hair side out, a permanent lashing put 
on the neck and stick, when the poke is ])lown up again and is ready 
for use. 

The harpoon line is made of walrus hide, very strong and often 
double. Its end is made fast around the lashing between the stick and 
the poke. Two pokes are used on the harpoon line, which terminates 
in a bridle. Still another poke is used as a trailer, the harpoon line 
being not more than 5 fathoms in length. The third poke or trailer 
has a small line 15 or 20 fathoms long. This trailer keeps on the sur- 
face and tells the hunters the position of the whale, thus making the 
pursuit much easier. 

The harpoons used are to be found in the U. S. National Museum 
collection. The staff is about 10 feet long, tapering at each end. It is 
never thrown, but thrust into the whale, and great force is needed to 
drive this rather bulky instrument through the tough fibrous blubber 
when the cutting portion is formed of stone, as was always the case 
before the advent of the white man. These people are so governed 
by superstitions that they fear dire disaster would overtake them if 
they did not use the stone cutting points of their fathers on the first 
whale; after that they can use what seems best for the occasion. 

The other implements to complete the outfit of an umiak are as fol- 
lows: Three pokes well inflated and read}^ for use, and from three to 
five more all ready to be blown up; a paddle for each person, the one 
used for steering being much larger than the others; an implement for 
bailing' the umiak, made of the reindeer antler, as it is ver}^ desirable 
to remove the water as soon as possible after it leaks in; a long knife, 
fixed on a pole 10 feet in length, for cutting blubber and lean meat 
under water; three gaffs (hooks on poles) of different lengths, vary- 
ing from 6 to 12 feet, the hooks of ivory; these are useful to hook on 
to the portion of flesh to be cut off; a little bag with plugs whittled 
out to put in the mouthpiece used to inflate the pokes; these plugs 
are often broken, and an extra one must be kept on hand; a large 
wooden scoop to bail when a quantity of water gets into the umiak; a 
spare whale harpoon; a crutch to lash in the prow of the umiak to 
rest the harpoon on; the two tips of this rest are carved in a rude 
semblance to a whale's head; the skin of a crow, some eagle feathers, 
and a little earth in a small bag from the grave of some noted whale 
hunter, for good luck; some of these crow skins have been used many 
years and are in a most dilapidated condition, but are highly esteemed, 
for they have been present at the death of man}^ a whale; great wis- 
dom is accredited to the eagle and the crow, and it is considered quite 
the proper thing to use this talisman in order to overcome the cun- 
ning of the whale; a couple of toggles made of ivory, in the shape of 
a whale; and straps to lash the pectoral fins of the whale when towing, 
so the fins will not drag h'eavily through the water; a bag of provi- 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



271 



o 



sions. The men of the boat's crew carry their guns to shoot passing 
seals during the weary wait for the whale to come. Two women will 
be found in most crews. Each woman carries a sealskin bag to thaw 
out the snow for drinking purposes; the snow is put in the bag and 
its mouth firmly tied; it is then placed on her back between the inner 
and outer coat. The women also have their sewing 
outfits, to mend any breaks in the umiak. 

In hunting through the ice the Eskimo of Point Bar- 
row used a difi^erent shaped harpoon, with a long ivory 
piece on each end and a smaller head. As the seal 
comes up to blow they hurl this spear through the 
hole; then they drown the seal. After the animal is 
dead they haul it through the ice, picking the ice away 
until the hole is large enough to get the seal out. The 
animals do not freeze quickly, because they have such a 
coating of blubber. (Mr. Charles Browers.) 

A combined barbed and toggle harpoon head (Cat. No. 
1328, U.S.N. M.) of antler, from the Mackenzie River 
district, is shown in fig. 62. Body sagittate, tapering to 
a flat angular tip. Blade of iron, with a long rectangu- 
lar tang and a triangular point with slight projections 
at its base. The tang is snugly fitted into the slit and 
held by an iron rivet. There is a line hole at one angle 
of the point, but it ma}^ have been there previously, 
since these Eskimos especially work up all the old iron 
they get their hands on. 

Line hole straight through the body behind the lateral 
barbs, and without slight grooves. Barbs, three; two 
on the sides, on an arrowhead, ornamented with longi- 
tudinal lines, and one terminating the back in a point. 
Socket half an inch deep. Butt end having two faces, the lower almost 
at right angles with the body, the upper whittled thin under the barb. 
Length, 3f inches. Collected by C. P. Gaudet. To this special type 
belong also many other examples. The National Museum is under 
infinite obligations to Messrs. Robert MacFarlane, B. R. Ross, and 
R. Kennicott for Mackenzie River materials. 

A barbed seal harpoon (Cat. No. 16675, U.S.N.M.) for throwing 
stick. The shaft is of light pine wood, tapering backward, and is 
slightly thickened at the butt end. It is attached to the f oreshaf t b}^ 
means of a socket and shank on the foreshaft. The foreshaft is of 
whale's bone, C54indrical. The tang is a plug cut on the end of the 
bone, fitting into the socket of the foreshaft. A hole is bored through 
the tang, through which the assembling line passes to hold the two 
parts together. The socket for the point is elliptical in section. No 
feathers are used. The point is of bone, delicate in form. Shank 



Fig. 62. 

BARBED AND TOG- 
GLE HEAD. 

Mackenzie River. 
Collected by C. P. 

Gaudet. Cat. No. 

1328, U.S.N.M. 



272 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



oval in section. Barbs, three on each margin. Line hole oblong. 
The line is of rawhide, one end fastened through the line hole b\^ a 
triple splice. About midway the line is split and the two ends are 
fastened as a martingale — one around the shaft near the foreshaft, the 
other 18 inches from the butt end, both by a clove hitch. The assem- 
bling line on this specimen is short. It is pressed into 
the wood just below the juncture with the foreshaft and 
passes forward, then through the perforations in the 
foreshaft and backward, where it makes three clove 
hitches and then is continued backward, where the upper 
end of the martingale is attached, and is fastened off by 
a half hitch, the end being pressed into the wood. This 
specimen is from Kotzebue Sound, collected b}' W. H. 
Dall. Length of shaft, 49i inches; foreshaft, 5 inches; 
point 2f inches. 

A large toggle head of a harpoon without blade (Cat. 
No. 88775, U.S.N.M.), from Diomede Island, is shown 
in fig. 63, It is of a typical form. The body is high and 
narrow, elliptical in outline, but having flattened faces 
here and there. The line hole is cut straight through, 
and is a flat ellipse in outline, 1^ inches long and three- 
eighths inch wide, with no attempt at line 
grooves. There is one immense barb 
formed by the back prolonged, ridged, and 
cocked up. The shallow socket is in a 
long cut or chamfer forming the butt end. 
Length, 8i inches. Collected by E. W. 
Nelson. To this same class of long, slen- 
der heads with large line hole belong the 
following specimens, with polygonal cross section. 

Cat. No. 48589 (fig. 64), from Kotzebue Sound, col- 
lected by Nelson, is a little model in walrus ivory of a 
precisely similar head, with perpendicular blade and 
very long bevel at the butt end. 

A typical Alaskan walrus toggle head (Cat. No. 49167, 
U.8.N.M.), from Diomede Island, is shown in fig. 65. 
The body is of walrus ivory, conoid, with sloping faces 
on the back. Blade of iron, large in proportion, square 
at the base, set 1^ inches into the slit, and held by a 
bone pin. 

Line hole oblong, straight through, widened behind, 
and flanked by two short grooves. Barb, one, angular; 
socket for the end of the shaft half an inch deep. Butt end cut off 
in a plane slightly warped at the socket. Length, 5 inches. Collected 
bv E. W. Nelson. 



Fig. 63. 
TOGGLE HEAB. 

Diomede Island, 
Collet-ted by E. W. 

Nelson. Cat. No. 

3877.5. U.S.N. M. 



Fig. 114. 

MODEL OF TOGGLE 

HEAD. 

Kotzebue Sound. 
Collected by E. W. 

Nelson. Cat. No. 

48.589, U.S.N.M. 



ABOEIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



273 







?m 



A toggle head of a whale harpoon (Cat. No. 56601, IT.S.N.M.), from 

Point Barrow, Alaska, collected by Captain "Rny and described by 

Murdoch (1892, p. 238), is shown in fig. 66. Specimens of this kind 

are made for the market. The blades are triangular, the corners 

somewhat rounded off. The body is of coarse 

whale's bone, from the rib or jaw. Only two out 

of a large number collected by Ray are of ivory. 

The blade of this example is of 

brass, set into a saw cut in the 

end of the body and held in place 

by a bone rivet. The body is 

somewhat quadrangular in sec- 
tion, the line hole is well back 

from the blade, and the body 

widens from the front to this 

point. The line grooves extend 

outward beyond the ])ase. The 

single spur is long and inclined 

upward. The base, contrary to 
the usual pattern, 
is somewhat con- 
vex. In the great 
mass of toggle 
harpoons the base 
is either concave 
or formed by two 
p 1 a n e s which 
make a different 
anglewith the axis 
of the specimen. 
But in this case 
the contrary is 
true. The socket 
for the foreshaft 
is wide and deep. 

A small toggle head (Cat. No. 5661-1, U.S.N.M.) of 
bone, from Point Barrow, for catching seal, is shown in 
fig. 67. Body conoid, flattened laterally. Blade lanceo- 
late, just fitting at its base into the slit of the head and 
fastened with an iron rivet. Line hole straight through 
^^nd flanked by deep grooves. Barbs, two, formed by a 
file cut m the ])ack. This is a common practice on hundreds of mod- 
ern specimens. Socket for the shaft shallow and distinctlv margined. 
Butt end formed by the meeting of two planes. Leno-th 3 in^'he-^ 
Collected by P. H. Rav. "^ ' ^ ^' 



m--'-: i 



Fig. 65. 

TOGGLE HEAD. 

Diomede Island, Bering 

Strait. 

Collected by E. W. Nelson 

Cat. No. 49167. U.S.N.M. 



Fig. 66. 
TOGGLE HEAD OF WHALE 
HARPOON. 

Point Barrow. 
Collected by P. H. Ray. 
Cat. No. 56601, U.S.N.M. 



Fig. 67. 

TOGGLE HEAD. 

Point Barrow, 

Alaska. 

Collected by P. H 

Ray. Cat. No 

566U, U.S.N.M. 



NAT MUS 1900- 



19 



274 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



A new .style toggle head (Cat. No. 56620, U.S.N.M.) from Point 
Barrow, is shown in tig. Cy8. A large number of specnnens of this type 
were brought home ])y the Ray expedition. The body is of antler and 
the blade is set into the saw cut at right angles to the plane of the 
body, barbed. The line hole is in the plane of the blade. The socket 
for the foreshaft divides the base into two parts with different slope, 
the one nearly perpendicular, the other with a slight angle, so as to 
form the barb. Of this specimen Murdoch says, ''It is a newly made 
model in reindeer antler of the ancient harpoon, but evidently by a 

man used to modern patterns, 
so that the blade is set in at the 
wrong angle." 

Walrus harpoons (Cat. Nos» 
56670 and 56672, U. S. N. M.) 
from Point Barrow, Alaska, col- 
lected by P. H. Ray, are shown 
in tigs. 69 r^ and h. The shaft 
of the former is of spruce, 71 
inches long, rounded, and taper- 
ing from the middle in both di- 
rections. The club-shaped fore- 
shaft is of ivor}' and has a 
wedge-shaped tang which fits in 
a cleft at the end of the shaft. 
The shaft and foreshaft are 
fastened together b}^ a whip- 
ping of seal thong put on wet, 
one end fastened through a hole 
in the shaft, and the whole kept 
from slipping by a ridge on each 
side of the tang. In the tip of 
the foreshaft is a deep round 
socket to receive the loose shaft, 
a tapering rod of walrus ivor}^ 
secured b}^ a piece of seal thong 
passing through a transverse hole above the shoulder. One end i^^ 
spliced to the thong; the other end makes a couple of turns outside of 
the lashing between the shaft and the foreshaft. On the side of the 
shaft and just above the middle is a line catch. 

No. 56772 is a similar togglehead harpoon with the line hole in the 
plane of the blade, foreshaft with square base, spindle-shaped fore- 
shaft, leader looped into the line hole and doubled at the outer end, to 
be spliced with the end of the line. On the shaft is a hook to be used 
in tightening the apparatus when the head is in place and also a stop 




Fig. 68. 
TOGGLE HEAD WITH LEADER. 

Point Barrow. 

Collected by P. H. Ray, after Murdoch. 

Cat. No. 56620. U.S.N.M. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



275 




c ? 



W pq 



276 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



for the hand in thrusting. The details of this specimen are carefully 
worked out by Murdoch (p. 225). 

A sealing harpoon (Cat. No. 5677-^, U.S.N.M.) from Point Barrow, 
Alaska, collected by P. H. Ray, is shown in fig. 70. With respect to the 

use of this implement, Murdoch says that as 
the seals come up for air to their breathing 
holes or cracks in the ice a harpoon is used 
which has a short wooden shaft armed with an 
ice pick, and a long, slender loose shaft suita- 
ble for thrusting down the small breathing 
hole. It carries a toggle head, but has only a 
short line, the end of which is made fast per- 
manently to the shaft. Such harpoons are 
used by all Eskimo wherever they are in the 
habit of watching for seals at their breathing- 
holes. The foreshaft is simply a stout band 
for the end of the shaft; 
the loose shaft is of bone 
and has two holes to 
receive the end of the as- 
sembling line, which not 
only holds the loose shaft 
in place, but connects 
the other parts of the 
shaft so that in case the 
wood breaks the pieces 
will not be dropped.^ 
An old bone harpoon head (Cat. No. 89331, 

U.S.N.M.) from Point Barrow, which is a compro- 
mise or transition between the barbed harpoon 

head and the toggle head, is shown in fig. 71a. 

Two long barbs on the margins are bilateral and 

symmetrical. Blade transverse to line hole, as in 

the small seal dart heads. The shaft socket groove 

is flanked on its margins with slots, through which 

a thong may have passed to complete the apparatus. 

Two specimens are figured by Murdoch. Length, 

4i inches. Collected by P.^H. Ray, U. S. A.^ 

Murdoch calls attention, in fig. 7lh, to the similarity of No. 89544, 

U.S.N.M., to a harpoon head collected by Nordenskiold at the 

ancient Onkalon house at North Cape.^ 




b « 

Fig. 71. 
OLD BAEBED AND TOGGLE HEADS. 

Point Parrow. 

Collected by P. H. Ray, after Murdoch. 

Cat. Nos. a, 89331; b, 8954, U.S.N.M. 




Fig. 72. 

OLD TRANSITIOX HARPOON 
HEAD. 

Point Barrow. 
Collected by P. H. Ray. after 



Murdoch. 
U.S.N.M. 



Cat. No. 89337, 



1 Ninth Annual Eeport of the Bureau of Ethnology, fig. 239. 
2 Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 220, fig. 209 a and h. 
=^ Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, fig. 211, p. 220, quoting Voy- 
age of the Vega, I, p. 444, fig. 5. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



277 



A bone harpoon head (Cat. No. 89337, U.S.N.M.) from Point Bar- 
row is shown in fig. 72. It marks a step in the transition from 
barbed head to toggle in that the barbs are absent; a slot on each 
margin of the body marks the places where they might have been 
inserted. The line hole is transverse to the blade. The barb of the 
toggle head is four-pronged and sits awry with reference to the blade. 
Length, ^ inches. Collected by P. H. Ray, U. S. A.' 

A combined barbed and toggle harpoon head (Cat. No. 89377, U. S. N. M. ) 
from Point Barrow, rhomboidal in section, conoidal behind the barbs, 
body all in one piece, of bone or antler, long, slender, tapering from 
butt to point like a lance blade, is shown in fig. 73. 
When the line hole is horizontal the blade is vertical. 
The line hole is a small round perforation. Line 
grooves, narrow; furrows, uniform. 

There were at one time, possibly, barbs on the mar- 
gins of the blade, for there exists on each, at a distance 
of 2 inches back from the point, a groove seven-eighths 
inch long, three-eighths inch deep, and less than one- 
eighth inch wide, undercut in front. Into this groove 
or slat could have been inserted marginal barbs of bone, 
or perhaps of stone. The barb at the butt end is made 
up of a series of four-lobed projections of different 
lengths. 

The socket is a squared mortise into the bone, with 
one side quite open. On the margins of this space 
elongated slots are cut into an open, depressed space on 
the back, and the socket is completed by coiling around 
through them a string of animal tissue. 

With this specimen should be compared an example 
from North Cape, with top and bottom barb, oblong line 
hole decorated by furrows along the sides toward the tip, 
terminating in two branches and a cross lihe.^ Length 
of 89377 is 5 inches. Collected by P. H. Ray.' 

A combined barbed and toggle harpoon head (Cat. 
No. 89378, U.S.N.M.) from Point Barrow, of antler, 
all in one piece, is shown in fig. 74. The body is long, 
slender, and angular in its outlines, a flat triangle in 
section in front and pentagonal behind the barb. Line hole straight 
through very near the butt end and parallel to the plane of the point 
and lateral barbs. Line grooves deep cut for a small rawhide line. 

There are three barbs, one on each margin, acute, the opening two- 
sided; the rear barb is a sharp termination of the rigid back. Socket for 



Fig. 73. 
BARBED AND TOG- 
GLE HEAD. 

Point Barrow. 
Collected by P. H- 
Ray. Cat. No. 89377, 
U.S.N.M. 



^ Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 220, fig. 210. 
- A. E. Nordenskiold, Voyage of the Vega, New York, 1882, p. 335. 
^ Ninth Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 220, fig. 210. 



278 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



the shaft half an inch deep, butt end cut off, with two faces and a ridge 
in the middle. Length, 5^^ inches. Collected by P. H. Ray. It is well 
known that all such angular material has been made with steel tools. 
The only attempt at decoration is a series of four short grooves extend- 
ing forward from the angles of the lateral barb — a 
common feature in Eskimo art. 

An ivory harpoon head (Cat. No. 89379, U.S.N.M.) 
from the Eskimo camp near Point 
Barrow, which marks that step in A 

the transition from the barbed head 
to the toggle head in which the line 
hole, line grooves, and shaft socket 
of the latter are complete, is shown 
in fig 75. Length, 5 inches. Col- 
lected by P. H. Ray.^ It is com- 
pared by Murdoch with a C'hukchi 
f orm.^ The blade is long and tapers 
backward from the tip to the equal 
barbs, giving to this part of the 
specimen the form called sagittate, 
and occupying two-thirds of the 
length of the head. The tang of the 
blade and barbs expands to form 
the body, through which the line 
hole passes directly, perpendicular 
to plane of the blade. The line 
grooves are straight and uniform in 
depth. The body widens from the 
barb on the side that is to become the 
spur or rear barb, the other side 
being straight. The shaft socket 
is in perfect alignment, and the base is a single 
gracefull}^ curved plane to the point of the spur. 
A curious fragment of a combined barb and toggle 
harpoon head (Cat. No. 89381, U.S.N.M.) is shown in 
fig. 76. The parts are all from one piece of ivory; the 
barbed head is transverse to the line hole, the line hole 
is somewhat triangular, and the specimen is much dis- 
colored and disfigured, showing that it is old. Either owing to the 
povert}^ of material or on account of breakage, the after part of the 
toggle head is too narrow for a socket to the foreshaft. In order 
to remedy this defect the Eskimo hunter has made a furrow or cavity 



Fig. 74. 

COMBINED BARBED AND 
TOGGLE HEAD. 

Point Barrow. 

roUected by P. H. Ray. 

i^at. No. 89378, U.S.N.M. 



Fig. 75. 

BARBED AND TOGGLE 

HEAD. 

Point Barrow. 
Collected by P. H. Kay. 
Cat. No. 89379. U.S.N.M. 



^ Figured by Murdoch in Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 220, 
fig. 211. 

^ A. E. isordenskiold, Voyage of the Vega, New York, 1882, p. 335. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



279 



on the side and cut square holes in the margins of this cavity, through 
which a rawhide line could be run several times, and this would serve 
the purpose of the socket. This device may be ^ een on one other speci- 
men in the collection. Collected by Philip H. E ly, Point Barrow. 

An old harpoon toggle head (Cat. No. 893^2, U.S.N.M.) from 
Nuwuk, in the Point Barrow region, made of bone, 
all in one piece, is shown in fig. 77. In fact, it is a 
barbed head, like that of the seal dart, becoming a 
toggle head. The part answ^ering to the blade is a 
point on the bone with a single barb on the lower 
side or belly. From the base of the barb the bod\^ 
widens to the butt end. The line hole is transverse 
to the' blade. The butt is cut ofi' diagonally. The 
socket is wanting, but the bone is concave on one 
side. Mr. Murdoch thinks that a socket was pro- 
vided by the lashing, as in Example 89381. ^ Length, 
S inches. Collected by P. H. Ray. 

An old-sty le toggle head (Cat. No. 89748, U. S. N. M. ) 

for a harpoon is shown 
in fig. 78. The body is 
of bone, quadrangular 
in section. The head is 
of chipped stone, with a 
tang set into the kerf in 
front of the body and 
held in place not b}^ a 
rivet, but by a lashing 
of sinew twine. The line hole is at the 
extremitv of the body, where it begins to 
taper to the spur or barb, which is slighth^ 
bifurcated at its outer end. This is called 
an old-fashioned specimen because the 
blade of stone is in the plane of the greatest 
width of the bod}^ and is bisected by the 
line hole.^ 

A retrieving seal harpoon (Cat. No. 
89907, U.S.N.M.) from Point Barrow, 
collected by Ray, is shown in figs. 79 and 80. This specimen w^as 
supposed by Murdoch to have been invented after the introduction of 
the rifle, but in his description ^ he makes the remark that though it is 
used at the present day for nothing but retrieving, the fact of similar 
specimens having been brought by the ofiicers of the Blossom show^s that 





Fig. 76. 

COMBINED BARBED AND 
TOGGLE HEAD. 

Point Barrow. 

Collected by P. H. Ray. 

Cat. No. 89381. U.S.N.M. 



Fig. 77. 
OLD TOGGLE HEAD, 

Point Barrow. 
Collected by P. H. Ray, after 
Cat. No. 89382, U.S.N.J 



^ Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 
2 Idem, p. 221, fig. 212. 
ndem, p. 231. 



p. 219, %. 208. 



280 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, ]900. 



i 



it antedated the rifle. Such a retrieving- harpoon is called nauliga. The 
.shaft (ipiia) is of ash, 4 feet 5 inches long and 1 inch in diameter, taper- 
ing ver}^ slightU' to each end. The ice pick (tuu), of walrus ivory, Itt 
inches long and 1 inch wide, has a round tang fitting into a hole in the 
butt of the shaft. Close to the shaft a small hole is drilled in one 
edge of the pick, and through this is passed a bit of seal thong, the 
ends of which are laid along the shaft and neatly whipped down with 
sinew braid, with the end wedged into a slit in the wood. The fore- 
shaft (ukumailuta) is of Avalrus ivory, -ii inches long 
and li inches in diameter at the thickest part, and 
secured to the shaft by a whipping (ni'xnia) of seal 
thong. The loose shaft (igimu) is also of ivor}^ and 2 
inches long, and secured by a thong (ipiuta) spliced 
into a loop through the hole at the butt, as previousl}^ 
described. The end is hitched round the tip of the 
shaft with a marlin hitch, followed by a clove hitch 
below the whipping. The iyorj finger rest (ti'ka) is 
fastened on with a lashing of whip cord (white man's) 
passing round the shaft. The line catch (kilerbwin), 
which was of ivor}^ and shaped like those on the walrus 
harpoons, has been lost in transportation. The head 
difl[ers only in size from those intended for the bearded 
seal, except in having a hexagonal bod3\ It is 3.3 
inches long and has a blade of iron fastened into a body 
of walrus ivor}^ with a single wooden rivet. While 
there is no detachable leader, the head is attached by 
a separate piece of the same material to the line 
(tukaksia), which is S<d feet 10 inches long and made 
of a single piece of fine seal thong about one-eighth 
inch thick. This shorter piece is about -27 inches 
long, and is passed through the line hole and doubled 
so that one part is a little the longer. 

It is fastened strongly to the end of a line by a com- 
plicated splice made as follows: A slit is cut in the end 
of the main line, through which are passed both ends of 
the short line. The longer part is then slit about 2 
inches from the end, and the shorter part passed through the slit, 
and a slit cut close to the end of it, through which the longer end is 
passed. The whole is then drawn taut and the longer end clove 
hitched round the main line. 

Catalogue No. 129585 in the U. S. National Museum is a barbed 
harpoon (for throwing stick) from Cape Blossom, and collected by 
Capt. M. A. Healv, of the U. S. Kevenue Marine. The shaft is of 
light pine wood, tapering back toward the butt end. It is socketed to- 
receive the shank or tang of the foreshaft, which is plug-shaped and 



y'x 



Fig. 78. 

OLD STYLE TOGGLE 
HEAD. 

Point Barrow. 
Collected by P. H. Ray, 
after Murdoch. Cat. 
No. 89748, U.S.N.M. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



281 



01 



Y 



m 



y 



^ ^z-^ 



^82 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 

fitted ill, all being held together l)v sinew braid. The foreshaft is of 
whale's bone, cylindrical. The socket for the point is oblong. Feath- 
ers, two, especially noteworthy. The tip end of a half feather is 
punched into the wood near the neck, bent at right angle and carried 
forward and lashed down by the assembling line. The fibrous part of 
the feather is on the inside, between the rib and the shaft of the har- 
poon. This st3de of feathering is seen on example 48153, from Sledge 
Island, Avith three feathers; on 34020, from Norton Sound, and on 
several specimens from Golof nin, and does not occur any farther south. 
The point is of bone, concave on one side and convex on the other. 
Barbs, three on one margin and two on the other. The tang of the 
point is wide and fiat. The line is of seal hide; martingale formed b}^ 
splitting the line in the middle and t3dng the two ends to the shaft. 
There are two assembling lines — one extending from the upper knot 
of the martingale to the joint of the shaft and foreshaft, where it forms 
the seizing between the two; the other begins with the lower knot of 
the martingale, where one end of sinew thread is punched into the 
wood, passes backward, and is fastened ofl' b}^ a clove hitch. It then 
returns to the starting point, where it is again fastened off, and goes on 
to the feather by a series of turns and half hitches, laid on much as the 
sinew on the sinew-back bow. This is very interesting. Length of 
shaft, 44 inches; foreshaft, 4^ inches; point, 2 inches. 

Example No. 129574, in the U. S. National Museum, is a barbed 
harpoon from Cape Krusenstern, Kotzebue Sound. The delicate shaft 
is conical in shape, tapering from the foreshaft backward, and slightly 
flattened in its thicker portion. It is socketed in the larger end for 
the reception of the foreshaft, and slightly stained red. 

The foreshaft is of whale's bone, C3dindrical in shape. The tang fits 
in the open socket of the shaft, and on the outside the two bodies are 
trimmed down so as to form one continuous surface. Seizing of sinew 
twine. The socket for the point is quite large and extends across the 
wooden plug inserted in the end of the bone. 

The hand rest is a slight hook of ivory set in the shaft, pierced with 
one triangular hole and held b}^ a wrapping of sinew thread, which is 
also continued around the shaft a dozen times and fastened off by being 
punched into the wood. 

The point is of bone, fiat on one side and rounded on the other. 
Broad shank. Line hole almost circular. Barbs, three on one mar- 
gin and two on the other. On the fiat side of the point a shallow gut- 
ter is cut from the line hole forward. 

The line is of seal skin. One end passes through the line hole and is 
fastened by a common slip knot; the other end is made fast to the 
shaft, about 9 inches behind the hand rest, with a clove hitch of three 
turns. 

The assembling line is of rawhide, one end caught under the seizing 



Report of U. S. National Museum, 1900. — Mason. 



Plate 8. 



''''■■' . 


■•':^'li 


{'::■ . 


. --.il r'SV'..' 


i': 


' ■ y'M 




Barbed Harpoon, with Hand Rests, St. Michael Island, Alaska. 

Collected by E. W. Nelson. 
Cat. No. 36068, U.S.N.M. 



^ 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 288 

between the shaft and foreshaft, and the other end pressed into a 
groove in the wood and held b}^ a small wedge. 

This delicate specimen is the only example of the class of barbed 
harpoons with hand rest coming from a point north of Bering Strait. 
Length of shaft, 4 feet 3 inches; foreshaft, 7 inches; point, 3 inches. 
Collected by Capt. M. A. Healy, of the U. S. Revenue Marine. 

HARPOONS OF BERING SEA. 

The harpoons of this area were fully described and figured by Nel- 
son in 1899, who had the advantage of having seen the specimens at 
work. The massive harpoons of Greenland and the central Eskimo 
are wanting here, but the greatest variety of forms and parts is to be 
found. Again, if the flat varieties of eastern Asia, with line hole in 
the plane of the blade, are the more aboriginal, their nearest kin are 
to be seen, not in Bering Sea, but around Greenland. It is as when an 
Oxford professor, wishing to know something of his old-time kin, 
visits, not the nearest English town, but the heart of some New World 
•colony. The Bering Sea Eskimo have been profoundly affected by the 
vigorous prosecution of the fur trade during the past century and a 
half. The possession of steel tools has revolutionized their fine art; 
but, fortunately for this study, the harpoon has kept more loyally to 
its ancient models. There are barbed varieties, toggle varieties, and 
some are mixed. There are those which are thrust with the hands, 
others are hurled from the hand, and very many are cast from throw- 
ing sticks. Of this last-named implement a number of type forms are 
to be seen between Mackenzie River and Sitka. Here also will be 
found feathered harpoons, those with bladders attached to the shaft, and 
harpoon arrows. In the more southern portions of the Bering Sea area 
the harpoon attains a finesse in structure and appearance nowhere else 
seen. The collections from this area made by Nelson, Turner. Dall, 
Applegate, and Johnson are unparalleled for comparative study. 

Among a large collection of these seal darts or barbed harpoons 
from Unalakleet, in the northeast corner of Norton Sound, a great 
majorit}^ have cylindrical foreshafts made of Avhale's bone, but one 
•or two specimens have the heads of walrus ivory and the front end 
tapered in conical form. Farther south this characteristic is more 
abundant. Barbs on the points are three on one margin and two on 
the other, and two on one margin and one on the other. 

According to Lucien Turner, the harpoon darts with ver}^ thick 
foreshafts and elongated bladders attached to the shaft are for salmon. 
They are confined to Bristol Bay and the south side of the Alaskan 
peninsula, so far as the U. S. National Museum is concerned. 

Cat. No. 33859 in the U. S. National Museum is a barbed harpoon 
thrown from the hand by means of a hand rest on the shaft. Quite 
similar is No. 36068, as shown in Plate 8, described in Nelson, 1899 



284 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 

(p. 138). Unless otherwise mentioned the specimens described below 
were collected by E. W. Nelson. 

The shaft is of soft wood, tapering backward to a point, oval in 
cross section, and v^tained red in the front portion. For the attach- 
ment of the foreshaf t a roughly conical socket is excavated, and on the 
upper side of this socket a slot is cut through from the outside. In 
the harpoons whose foreshaf ts are attached in this wav this slot is 
universal — that is, the tang of the foreshaft is not driven into a cavity 
which it fits, but is set in a cavit}^ with two margins which can be 
driven close together by the shrinkage of the seizing. 

The foreshaft is of whale's bone, nearly cylindrical, and cut off 
square in front. The tang is conoidal in form and terminates with a 
shoulder where it joins the bod}^ of the foreshaft. A plug of wood is 
inserted in the front end of the foreshaft, with a socket for the tang of 
the point. Feathers, none; but on the side of the shaft, just behind 
the center of gravit}^, is a flat piece of antler or bone set on and held in 
place by a lashing of rawhide thong. This serves as a stop for the 
end of the harpoon, the latter being driven like a javelin fi'om the 
hand, without the use of a throwing stick of any kind. 

The point is of bone, flattened on one side and round on the other^ 
much larger than that of the variet}^ hurled with a throwing stick. 
The shank is a flattened cone. Barbs, three on one margin and two on 
the other. In all of this class of harpoons the edges or sides of the 
point are sharp, and the margins of the barb are straight on one side 
and curyed on the other. The line hole is oblong. 

The line is of rawhide thong, one end attached to the point and the 
other end to the shaft back of the middle by a clove hitch. 

The assembling line is fastened around the tang of the foreshaft 
near the shoulder and is continued back underneath the lashings, of 
dift'erent kinds, to near the top end, where it is driven into the wood 
and forms a smooth fastening. 

Length of shaft, 52 inches. Length of foreshaft, 8 inches. Length 
of point, 4 inches. This specimen is from St. Michael. Collected l)y 
E. W. Nelson. 

A toggle head harpoon (Cat. No. 33888, U.S.N.M.) from Norton 
Sound is shown in fig. 81. The head is of ivory. The noticeable fea- 
tures about it are: The blade is in the same plane as the line hole; the 
line hole goes directly across the bod}' of the head; the shallow socket 
is exacth' behind it and in a line with the saw cut. There is a single 
barb or spur projecting behind the socket on top of the toggle head. 
The foreshaft is a long spindle of bone, tapering in front to fit the 
socket of the toggle head, and having a short cone at the base for the 
cavity in the end of the foreshaft. A hole is pierced through the fore- 
shaft and a loop or })ecket passed through this opening and around the 
line, so that when the animal is struck the foreshaft is withdrawn from 



Report of U. S. National Museum, 1900.— Mason 



Plate 9. 




Barbed Harpoon, with Hand Rest and Bladder, Norton Sound. 

Collected by E. W. Nelson. 

Cat. No. 33933, U.S.N.M. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



285 



the head and remains attached to the line. This feature should be 
carefully noted. The shaft is of wood, the fore- 
shaft of ivory, and swollen or bulbous at the outer 
end. It fits into the wedge-shaped cut on the end of 
the shaft and is held tight by a lashing of rawhide. 
This lashing continues the whole length of the shaft, 
being caught around it at intervals with half hitches, 
forming an assembling line. Attached to> the shaft 
is a hand rest about the center of gravity and a 
sharpened piece of bone at the other end. The line 
from the toggle head, after passing through the 
loop on the loose shaft, is attached to the shaft 
about the middle, so that the latter forms a drag 
when the animal is once struck. This implement is 
not thrown by means of a throwing stick, but from 
the hand of a hunter. Collected by E. W. Nelson. 

A barbed harpoon (Cat. No. 33910, U.S.N.M.) 
from the Norton Sound area, to be thrown from the 
hand and not from a throwing stick, is shown in 
fig. 82. The shaft tapers from the front to the 
rear end, and has a hand rest on the side, held down 
by sinew thread. The foreshaft is a cylinder of 
bone, and fits into the open socket of the shaft by 
means of a projection or tenon. The harpoon head 
is a barbed piece of bone. The line passes through 
the line hole in the head and is wrapped several 
times around the shaft, fastened off with a series of 
half hitches, and^ nearer to the butt end. The as- 
sembling line, in this example, is different from the 
one just described. When the animal is struck, the 
head is withdrawn from the foreshaft, the thong 
unwraps from the shaft, Avhich stands straight in 
the water and acts as a drag to the captured ani- 
mal. It is from St. Michael. 

A barbed harpoon with hand rest (Cat. No. 33933, 
U.S.N.M.), from St. Michael, Alaska, is shown in 
Plate 9. The shaft is of pine wood, elliptical in 
section, pointed in the rear, widening toward the 
middle and then narrowing again toward the fore- 
shaft. The foreshaft is of bone or antler, a flat 
cylinder in section and a truncated cone in outline. 
It has a hole in the base and is fitted over a projec- 
tion or tenon in the end of the shaft. This method 
of joining is worthy of notice. The shoulder of the 
shaft forms a neat joint with the rear of the foreshaft. 
NAT MUS 1900 20 



Fig. 81. 

TOGGLE HEAD HARPOON. 

Norton Sound. 

Collected by E. W. Nelson. 

Cat. No. 33888, U.S.N.M. 

In the middle 



286 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



of the body of the foreshaft a gutter is carved to receive the knot in 
the line. A hand rest on the middle of the shaft is^ 
triangular in outline, with a wavy margin and short 
llutings on the surface. It is pierced with three holes 
and set against the side of the shaft, where it is laid in 
place by wrappings of sinew thread. The fastening off 
of the lashing by being punched in the soft tissue of the 
wood is quite characteristic in Eskimo manufactures. 
The head has three barbs, one on one margin and two on 
the other, and is flattened on one side and angular on 
the other. The tang is flat and shouldered. The line 
hole is an oblong opening, just large enough to hold the 
rawhide thong and give it play. The line, which serves 
also for assembling line, is of stout sealskin. The small 
bladder is attached to the shaft. Its mouthpiece and 
lashings are well shown in the drawings. 

Specimen No. 33948 in the U. S. National Museum is 
a bridle harpoon for a throwing stick, from the mouth 
of the Yukon River, collected by E. W. Nelson. The 
shaft is of light pine wood, top-shaped at the tip, 
suddenl}^ narrowed, and then gradually widened to the 
butt end, where it is quite expanded. It is socketed 
for the shank of the foreshaft. The foreshaft is of 
ivory, attached to the shaft by a tang which fits into 
the socket. It is perforated just below the shoulder 
for the reception of a loop of rawhide, which is caught 
on either side under the seizing, binding the shaft and 
foreshaft together. This serves as an extra strength- 
ening or as a retrieving device. The tip end of the 
foreshaft is tapered and a wooden plug inserted for 
the reception of the point. Two whole feathers are 
attached in the usual manner, punched into the wood, 
all their tip ends and the butt ends held down by a 
wrapping of the assembling line. The assembling line 
passes from the front end of the shaft to the inner 
end of the feathers. The point is of ivory, line hole 
oblong, tang conical, with a shoulder. Martingale of 
sinew string, the two ends fastened in the usual place — 
one near the foreshaft, the other back of the middle, 
fastened by a clove hitch. The assembling line acts as 
a lashing for the shaft and the foreshaft, passes back- 
ward by the regular series of half hitches, and is fas- 
tened, off at the butt end as a seizing to the feathers. 
Especial attention is called, to the hole near the tang 
of the foreshaft; a similar hole is found through the inner end of the 



Fig. 82. 

BARBED HABiPOON. 

St. Michael Island. 

Collected by E. W. Nel- 
son. Cat. No. 33910, 
U.S.N.M. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 287 

foreshaft near the tang. This peculiarity is ahiiost entirel}^ confined 
to the area between Cape Dall and Nunivak. Length of shaft, 4:6 
inches; foreshaft, 5 inches; point, 3i inches. 

Specimen No. 33952 in the U. S. National Museum is a barbed 
harpoon without bridle for throwing stick, from Askeenuk, below 
Point Dall, collected b}^ E. W. Nelson. The shaft is of light pine 
wood, nearly uniform thickness throughout, slightly expanded at the 
butt, and cut into a truncated wedge in front, which fits into a smaller 
slot in the foreshaft. The foreshaft is of ivory, almost cylindrical, 
and a little expanded in the front 'and tapering toward the tip, into 
which a plug of wood is inserted for the reception of the tang of the 
point. Into the butt end of the foreshaft is sawed a wedge-shaped 
slot on the ends of the wings. These formed projections are left for 
the lashing which joins the two parts together. The lashing is also 
held in place at the other extremity cf the joint by shoulders on the 
foreshaft wrapped with sinew braid, which forms a strong joint. 
Three feathers are pressed into the wood near the butt end and 
wrapped with sinew braid at their inner extremities, the braid con- 
tmuing to form the assembling line of the shaft. Here, as in other 
examples, a dozen or more turns are closely wrapped around the shaft 
about a foot from the end. The point is of bone. Barbs, three on 
one side and two on the other. Line hole oblong and quadrangular. 
Tang conical and shouldered. Through the line hole is fastened a 
narrow sealskin thong 3 feet or more long. This is attached by its 
other end around the shaft near the joint with the foreshaft by a clove 
hitch. When the point is driven into a seal. by means of a throwing 
stick, the tang is withdrawn from the foreshaft, which sinks in the 
water, and the shaft floats with the feathers upward to act as a buoy 
and also as a drag to slacken the pace of the animal. Similar to this 
are Nos. 33950, 33949, 33954, and 33955. In all of these the line is 
fastened to the shaft near the foreshaft. Length of shaft, -I^i inches; 
foreshaft, 6i inches; point, 3 inches. 

Examples Nos. 3-1004, 34011, 34016, 34020, 34002, 34008, 34017, 34022, 
34018, 34001, 34023, 34014, 34003, 34021, 33992, 33991, 33999, 33994, 
33978, and 33995 in the IT. S. National Museum are barbed seal har- 
poons for throwing sticks, and form a large collection of these objects 
from various places around Norton Bay. They have foreshafts of 
whale's bone, cylindrical, attached to the shaft b}^ a shank fitted into 
a socket in the end of the shaft. 

The shank of the foreshaft#is somewhat wedge-shaped in cross sec- 
tion, the edge of which is run through a slot extending from the out- 
side to the inside of the end of the shaft, to allow the shrinking of the 
sinew wrapping on the outside to bind all the parts strongly together. 

Most of these specimens from this area have two feathers, though in 
some cases there is onlj' one. 



288 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 




The head and contiguous parts of a small 
toggle harpoon (Cat. No. 37380, U.S.N.M.) 
for seal, from Chalitmut, collected by E. AV. 
Nelson, is shown in fig. 83. The body of the 
head is of ivory, somewhat rectangular in cross 
section, but caryed and flattened on both sides 
in parts of •threes. The blade is set into a saw 
cut at the tip of the head and not held by any 
rivet. The socket for the loose shaft is a slen- 
der cone truncated within, the front end of the 
loose shaft being sawed ofl?. The butt end of 
the bod}^ is beveled out. A long slope and 
three barbs are formed at the hinder edge of 
this bevel and ornamented with concentric 
circles and lines. The line hole passes straight 
through the body, as in man}^ other examples 
of this type. The loose shaft is a spindle- 
shaped piece of bone, longer on the front slope. 
The hinder end is sharpened to fit into a groove. 
In the end of the foreshaft a hole is bored 
through the thick portion of the loose shaft, 
and through this hole and around the leader or 
line is formed a grommet of sinew cord. The 
two ends of the leader are overlapped and 
united by a notch. 

A small toggle harpoon (Cat. No. 37395, 
U.S.N.M.) of the Alaskan Eskimo, at Chalit- 
mut, on the north of KuskokwimBay, is shown 
in fig. 81. It is a type of the region and is 
made with a great deal of artistic skill. Blades 
are nowadays of brass, copper, and other met- 
als, often of slate, inserted into a small toggle 
head of ivor}^ transversely to the plane of the 
barbs, the plate intersecting the barb, which 
is bifurcated and sometimes trifurcated. The 
body is also ornamented with graceful lines, 
herring bone patterns, and circles. Into the 
socket of the headpiece is inserted the point 
of a small bone loose shaft, which fits b}' 
its lower end into a shallow socket of the 
foreshaft. Through the line hole of the head 
is a loop of rawhide, the ends neatly spliced 
together by a frapping with sinew string. 
The loose shaft is kept from being lost b}^ a 
little grommet. made of sinew passing through 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



289 



o 22 



it and around the rawhide loop. The whole work of all these 
mens is very neatly done. Length of head, If 
inches. Collected by E. W. Nelson. 

Catalogue No. 37955 is a toggle head of seal 
harpoon. The parts of this specimen which are 
attached are the head, with its loop or leader, and 
the loose shaft, with its runner or grommet of 
rawhide passing over and inclosing the leader of 
the head. 

The bod}" is of bone or ivory in the form of a 
flattened cone. The spur is beveled and curved 
up at the point. Two delicate barbs are parallel 
on the outside and divided by a furrow along the 
back. Blade of iron, triangular, with convex 
edges, inserted in the blade slit and riveted. 
Plane of the blade parallel with the line hole. 
Shaft socket in the spur narrow and deep. Line 
hole transverseh^ through the body. Line grooves 
extended to the end of the barbs and ornamented 
with engraved lines. Leader of rawhide, neatly 
spliced b}" seizing at the ends, and the space be- 
tween lashed with double hitches passing between 
the rawhide ends. A narrow seizing holds the 
two elements close to the toggle head. It may be 
questioned whether the peculiar curves of back 
and bell}^ give the head a start in toggling itself 
in the wound. 

Foreshaft of bone, spindle-shaped, and attached 
to the loop of the toggle head by a small running 
loop or grommet of rawhide. 

Length, 3^ inches. Eskimo of Sf agamute, north 
of Bristol Bay. Cat. No. 37955, U. S. National 
Museum. Collected by E. W. Nelson. 

The illustration in Plate 10 shows the construc- 
tion of the larger Bering Sea harpoons (Cat. Nos. 
43346 and 153727), cast from the hand, and used in 
killing large seals, walrus, and white whales. They 
have stout wooden shafts, from -1 to 7 feet long, with 
a hand rest near the center made of bone or ivor}", 
neatly fitted on and held in place by a lashing of 
baleen, rawhide, or sinew cord. The foreshaft is of 
bone and ivor}", neatl}" fashioned, fitted to the end 
of the shaft by a tenon and socket, and held firmly 
by a seizing of baleen. The foreshaft is pierced 
near its base for the line which holds all the parts 
together, and has a socket on top for the loose shaft 



speci- 



At the butt end of 



290 



the shaft is a bone pick, attached by a wedge-shaped joint, the bone fitting- 
into a kerf in the wood. The upper part of the pick is bored through 
for the assembling line. Around the joint is a lashing of baleen, 
neatly laid on, the- assembling line being neatly interlaced with the 
wrapping. Especial attention is called to the fastening off and the 
knots on the shaft. The foreshafts of the large Bering Sea harpoons 
belong to the two quite distinct forms, the spindle-shaped and the 
conoidal. On the left side of Plate 10 is shown the form and mount- 
ing of a spindle-shaped loose shaft, and on the right side that of a 
conoidal form. In this example the projection is on the loose shaft 
and the socket in the foreshaft. In both forms a hole has been bored 
through the loose shaft for the assembling line. In these harpoons 
the heads belong to Murdoch's later t3^pe; that is, the blade and line 
hole are in the same plane, at right angles to the 
longest diameter of the cross section of the tog- 
gle head. The blades of these harpoons are of 
slate, iron, brass, and, in a few specimens, of 
jade-like material. The toggle head is attached 
to the main line b}^ means of what Murdoch calls 
the leader, which is a stout rawhide thong, 1 to 2 
feet long, passed through the line hole, the two 
ends being overlapped and seized together; near 
the head a few turns of fine thong or sinew twine 
hold the two sides of the loop together, forming 
a becket. At the other end the leader is spliced 
into a becket on the end of the line. The line, 
when the head is read}^ for action is "done up" 
on the shaft, the far end being securely tied. 
When the game is struck, the head is withdrawn, 
the loose shaft unstripped, the line unrolls, and 
the shaft acts as a drag. 

An artistic little toggle head of bone and iron 
from Cape Nome (Cat. No. -MttStl:, U.S.N.M.), on the northern shore of 
Norton Sound, is shown in fig. 85. Body is somewhat pyramidal, the 
upper and lower surface being elegantly fluted and ridged. The blade 
is deltoid, with square butt and slightly convex margins, set deeph^ into 
the tapering point of the body in the plane of the line hole and fastened 
with a bone rivet. The line hole passes straight through the body of 
the toggle head, the ends being flanked b}^ triangular line grooves. 
Barbs, two cocked up and flared outward and bounded by the orna- 
mental ridges, which closeh^ follow the outlines of the back and termi- 
nate gracefully in the tips of the barbs. Butt end a curved plane, 
upright below and tapering above. 

A cast-iron toggle head (Cat. No. 44747, U.S.N.M.), from Sledge 
Island, Alaska, just south of Bering Strait, all in one piece — exactly 




Fig. 85. 

TOGGLE HEAD. 

Cape Nome, Alaska. 
Collected by E. W. Nelson. 
No. «484, U.S.N.M. 



Report of U. S. National Museum, 1900.— Mason. 



Plate 10. 








Larger Bering Sea Harpoon. 

Collected by E. W. Nelson. 
Cat. Nos. 43346 and 153727, U.S.N. M, 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



291 



similar to the little seal harpoon heads of ivory— blade of iron, and 
bifurcated barbs, is shown in fig. 86. 

Collected b}^ E. W. Nelson. This is the last word in the inventional 
history of the toggle harpoon head. From this point it enters the 
world-embracing commerce, being cast in metal and 
sold to island peoples all about the Pacific Ocean. It 
has no voice in settling the question how far similarities 
in aboriginal arts argue for contact or sameness of mind 
and its environments. 

Specimens Nos. 45429 and 45430, in the U. S. National 
Museum, are barbed harpoons from Cape Nome, the 
northwestern corner of Norton Sound, Alaska. These 
are similar to the Sledge Island specimens without 
feathers, one of them having the assembling line of 
sinew thread and the other of rawhide. 

The measurements of No. 45429 are: Shaft, 45i 
inches; foreshaft, 4 inches; point, 3 inches. Measure- 
ments of No. 45430 are: Shaft, 46 inches; foreshaft, 
4 inches; point, 2f inches. 

A bone toggle head (Cat. No. 46154, U.S.N.M.) of 
medium size, from Port Clarence, just 
south of Bering Strait, Alaska, is sho^n 
in fig. 87. Body conoidal in form, ellipti- 
cal in section, and higher than broad. 
Blade of iron, deltoid in form, set deeply 
in the slit and riveted with bone or wood. 
Line hole straight through, wider behind 
and run out into well-defined line grooves. Barbs two, 
formed by the bifurcation of the back, being angular, 
cocked up, and flared out. Socket for the foreshaft shal- 
low and having a sharp edge on the butt, which is a single 
curved surface, nearh^ perpendicular below, quite elon- 
gated above the socket. Length, 3i inches. Collected 
by Dr. T. H. Bean. Of similar character to No. 46154 are 
many other pieces in the Museum. In fact, when the shape 
arrives at a certain stage beyond the inventor, it seems to 
turn into the highroad of mechanical monotonies. 

Plate 11, Catalogue No. 48156 in theU. S. National Mu- 
seum, is a barbed seal harpoon projected from a throwing 
stick, from Sledge Island, on the northwestern shore of 
Norton Sound, collected by E. W. Nelson. The shaft 
is of light pine Avood, tapering gently from tip to butt 
and slightly flattened in cross section. The tip end is socketed for 
the reception of the tang of the foreshaft. The peculiarity of four 
specimens from this locality is that the socket is split very little on the 



Fig. 86. 
IRON TOGGLE HEAD. 

Sledge Island. 
Collected by E. W. Nel- 



son. Cat. 

U.S.N.M 



No. 44747, 



Fig. 87. 

TOGGLE HEAD. 

Port Clarence, 
Alaska. 

Collected by T. H. 
Bean. Cat. No.- 
46151. U.S.N.M. 



292 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 

outside, to allow for .shrinkage in hafting. The foreshaft, as in most 
other specimens, is of whale's bone and cA^lindrical. The shank for fas- 
tening to the shaft is shouldered and notched for the attachment of the 
assembling line. No feathers; but on another specimen, No. 48153, 
three half feathers, with plume inside, attached to their ends, as in 
example No. 129585, from Cape Blossom. The point is of bone, flat 
on one side and rounded on the other. Barbs, three on one margin 
and two on the other. The shank of the point is flat. The line is of 
dark seal rawhide, attached b}^ one end through the line hole of the 
point by means of two double splices an inch apart. It is split near 
the middle, the two ends being fastened to the shaft about 18 inches 
apart by means of a clove hitch. 

The front assembling line is looped around the shank of the fore- 
shaft by a clove hitch wrapped around the end of the shaft to prevent 
slipping, and is continued to the upper attachment of the martingale. 
Between its two knots the martingale acts as an assembling line. 
From the hindmost knot of the martingale an assembling line of 
sinew thread proceeds backward for 4 inches, where a dozen turns are 
made and the end is punched into the wood near the end of the shaft. 
Between the two knots of the martingale the shaft has been mended 
by a series of half hitches and clove hitches made in sinew thread. 

In specimen No. 48154, from the same locality, the upper assembling 
line is in fine seal rawhide. Length of shaft, 46 inches; foreshaft, 4 
inches; point, 3 inches. 

Specimen No. 48365 in the U. S. National Museum is a barbed har- 
poon for throwing stick, from Nunivak Island, south of Yukon mouth. 
The shaft is of soft wood, nearly uniform in thickness throughout, 
truncated and wedge-shaped at the upper extiemity to tit into a corre- 
sponding cut in the foreshaft. Especial attention might be called to 
the expansion of the small end of the wedge to correspond with depres- 
sions in the shouldering on the parts of the foreshaft which overlap 
the wedge, in order to prevent the joint from coming apart. This is a 
step toward a dovetail. 

The foreshaft is of walrus ivory, slighth^ expanded in front and 
conoid on the top. The tang has a wedge-shaped saw cut to tit on the 
end of the shaft. The two flanges are shouldered where the}^ join the 
body of the foreshaft, and have notches cut on them at the outer 
extremity for the lashing. This is driven on the end of the shaft and 
the two are seized together b}^ means of sinew braid laid on neatlv. 
A small plug of wood is inserted in the outer end of the foreshaft, 
having a conical socket for the butt end of the barb. 

At the base of the shaft there are two sets of black feathers, one 
above the other. Each feather is whole, its inner end seized to the 
shaft by means of the assembling line, which is wrapped several times 



Report of U. S. National Museum, 1900.— Mason, 



Plate 1 1 . 



n 




Barbed Harpoon for throwing Stick, Sledge Island. 

Collected by E. W. Nelson. 

Cat. No. 48156, U.S.N.M. 



ABOKIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 293 

around. The top ends of the feathers are firmh^ driven into holes in 
the wood. 

The head is of ivor}^, fiat on one face and angular on the other. The 
shank is nearly conical, fitting into the socket of the foreshaft. Line 
hole elongated. Barbs, three on one margin and two on the other. 

The line or martingale of the harpoon is of rawhide; the undivided 
end is passed through the line hole of the head and tied in a bowline 
knot. The two ends of the martingale are attached to the shaft near 
the feather and near the foreshaft by clove hitches. The sinew braid 
by means of which the shaft and foreshaft are seized together is con- 
tinued on toward the feathers, with here, and there a half hitch, until 
it reaches the rear feathers, where it forms the seizing, and then passes 
iDackward to become the seizing of the front set of feathers, and it is 
fastened on by being punched into the wood in a similar way to the 
top end of the feathers. 

Among the Eskimo tools there is a little ivory point belonging to 
the outfit of the bow-and-arrow maker, used especially for making- 
holes in soft wood, into which the ends of feathers and lines are 
punched to form a smooth fastening. It seems to be very effective. 
Length of shaft, 3 feet 7 inches; length of foreshaft and shank, 
7f inches ; length of point, 3 inches. Collected by E. W. Nelson. 

A sea-otter harpoon dart Pishudak, (Cat. No*! 72415, U.S.N.M.), 
from Bristol Ba}^, Alaska, is shown in Plate 12. In its composi- 
tion it resembles a large number of specimens used in an important 
industry. It will be described, therefore, in detail. The head is of 
ivory, flat on one side and angular in section on the other. There are 
three barbs, two on the left margin, one on the right; the line hole is 
oblong. The tang fitting into a socket at the end of the foreshaft is a 
little cone, shouldered above. The line is of braided sinew, fastened 
into the line hole of the barbed head b}^ a bend and knot. The other 
end in this and kindred specimens has not the martingale, but is tied 
to the shaft near the middle of the bladder. When the animal is 
struck, the barbed head pulls out from the foreshaft, the line unrolls 
from the shaft, the bone head drops, and the bladder rises. The appa- 
ratus acts then both as a drag and a signal. The foreshaft, of bone, is 
bill-shaped, cut off square at the base, excepting a slight tenon in form 
of a C3dinder to fit into a socket at the front end of the shaft. In the 
front end of the foreshaft a c^dinder of pine wood is set, and this must 
be noted on all barbed harpoons. The purpose is to give the tang of 
the head a firmer hold when the weapon is ready for action. The 
shaft of this and other like specimens is of wood, tapering just slightly 
from front to rear. The socket for the tenon of the foreshaft is care- 
fully bored, and wrapped with sinew ])raid. The same braid is con- 
tinued dow^n the shaft for assembling line, and serves also for attach- 
ing the float, which in all small harpoons of this class is made from 



294 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 

bladders, stomachs, or intestines of seal or walrus. They are cleaned 
out, one end fastened up securely, and into the other a mouthpiece 
with plug is set for purpose of inflation. The subject is discussed by 
Nelson.^ In the example shown the process of inserting a stud or plug 
into the float where it has been pierced is illustrated. Length of shaft, 
44 inches; length of foreshaft, 2i inches; length of barb, 4i inches. 
Specimen No. 11356 is quite similar. Length of shaft, 46i inches; 
length of foreshaft, 3 inches. 

Examples No. 8004 to 8007 in the U. S. National Museum are feath- 
ered harpoon darts from Bristol Bay. The shaft is very little expanded 
in front and slightly expanded at the nock. There are three half feathers 
neatly trimmed and bound on in front by the assembling line which is 
also used to seize the foreshaft, wrapped around the shaft and ends at 
the feathers. The feathers are seized at the nock with a strip of split 
quill and are further held in place by a thread which holds the mid- 
rib of the feather to the shaft of the dart at live places. The feather 
seizing at the nock is noticeable in all of these specimens and separates 
them from the others in the collection. 

The foreshaft, of ivory, is conical, smaller at the butt end, where it 
is inserted into the shaft by means of a shoulder plug which is driven 
into the socket at the end of the shaft. The front end of the foreshaft 
is abruptly conical and finished ofi* with -a wooden plug which has a 
pit or socket for the barbed point. The point is of bone and has two 
barbs on one side and one on the other. Length of shaft, 44i inches; 
of foreshaft, 5i inches; of point, 3 inches. Collected by Dr. T. T. 
Minor. Similar to these are Nos. 19378 and 19380, collected by the 
Rev. James Curley, having in all respects the same characteristics, 
excepting that the seizing at the nock is not of quill, but a continua- 
tion of the thread which holds the shaft of the feather to the shaft of 
the spear. 

Plate 13 (Cat. No. 90416, IT. S.N.M.) is a sea-otter spear from Ugashik, 
Bristol Bay, Alaska. The shaft is of wood, tapering from the fore end 
to the rear end. The head is of bone and has two barbs on one margin 
and one on the other. The line hole is small and has no line grooves. 
The tang is whittled ofi* thin to fit into a delicate socket on the end of 
the shaft. The leader or loop on the barbed head is a narrow strip of 
sealskin doubled through the line hole and seized together. The ends 
are also united in such a way that the loop is closed in the middle. At 
the other end the thong is doubled, passed through an e3^elet, over the 
projecting point to form a "detacher." On the shaft at five places are 
bands of birch bark and around these are wrapped sinew twine in half 
hitches for the purpose of retrieving the parts of the shaft if it should 
be broken. The bladder is a portion of the intestine of a seal, having 

^ The Eskimo about Bering Strait, 1899, pp. 40 to 145. 



Report of U. S. National Museum, 1900.— Mason 



Plate 12. 




Sea Otter Harpoon, Bristol Bay, Alaska. 

Collected by C. L. McKay. 

Cat. No. 72415, U.S.N.M. 



ABOEIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 295 

a delicate mouthpiece of ivoiy, neatly set on to the side of the shaft 
by wrappings of sinew thread passed through two holes bored in its 
upper portion. The other end of the bladder is bound to the rawhide 
thong, which is secured by being pushed under the wrapping of sinew 
thread between it and the birch-bark packing. The line is of rawhide 
and is securely fastened to the "detacher" at one end by a bend, which 
is held in place by a figure-of-8 wrapping of sinew thread. The rest 
of the line is wound about the shaft when the spear is ready for 
action, the other end being attached to the shaft between the two ends 
of the bladder. When the animal is struck, the head unships, the line 
unrolls, the head of the shaft drops into the water and the whole acts 
as a drag and a signal to show the position of the game. 

Examples Nos. 90417 to 90419 in the U. S. National Museum are 
feathered sea-otter harpoon darts from Ugashik, north of the Alaskan 
peninsula. The shaft is of light pine wood, very nearly cylindrical, 
and tapering slightly toward the front. The f oreshaf t is of bone and 
has a phig on the inner or butt end which fits into a socket on the end 
of the shaft, and the joint is seized by a fine sinew or iritestine braid, 
the inner end of which is continued backward with half hitches for an 
assembling line. Near the feather a band of this braid an inch in 
width is formed, and 4 inches above the feather is another one around 
the inner end to the feathers. There are three feathers, seized in front 
by the assembling line, and at the nock by a separate wrapping of 
braid. They are split and further held down by a light thread, which 
binds the shaft of them to the shaft of the dart in five places by half 
hitches. 

This method of attaching the feathers is found m Nos. 8004 to 8006 
and seems to be typical of the region. . 

The line or martingale is attached to the shaft 4 inches behind the 
foreshaft and 4 inches in front of the feather. The point is small and 
has three barbs on one side, and is attached to the line by means of a 
hole bored in the shank and fitted into the foreshaft by a tang which 
is nearly cylindrical. Length of shaft, 4 feet; of foreshaft, 5i inches; 
of point, If inches. Collected by William J. Fisher. 

The darts are called Nagik kujat; the bone foreshaft, Mamkuk; the 
line, Punak; the bone head, Kugichalugak; the feathers, Nakchute. 

A complete toggle harpoon (Cat. No. 160337, U.8.N.M.), with line 
float and line board, from Kusilvak, at the mouth of the Yukon River, 
in Alaska, is shown in Plates 14 to 15. The toggle head shown in Plate 
15 is of ivory, a delicate object, perfect in all its details. In outline 
it resembles the head of a duck. The blade is set into the saw-cut at 
the point of the body, and in the plane of the line hole, which is bored 
straight through from margin to margin. The barb is cut into three 
points, which form a part of the ornamentation. Through the line 
hole passes a long loop, which is neatly spliced at its ends and wrapped 
NAT MUS 1900 21 



296 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 

and knotted so as to keep it in shape. At its other extremity it unites 
with the end of a long rawhide line, which in turn is looped at its 
other end to a becket or loop of sealskin float, and f requenth^ an addi- 
tional line is spliced between the two. This line rests upon a flat 
board frame, which is thus described.^ 

The float board consists of a strong, oval hoop of spruce made in two U-shaped 
pieces, with the ends brought together and beveled to form a neatly-fitting joint, 
which is wrapped firmly with a lashing of spruce root; the sides have holes by w^hich 
a thin board is fastened to the under side, the ends of which are notched in front to 
form a coarsely serrated pattern with five points that are inserted in slots cut in the 
front of the hoop. The front of the board is oval, and the sides taper gradually to 
the points of two projecting arms, which extend 4 or 5 inches below the bow; between 
these arms a deep slot is cut, with the inner border rounded. The board has a round 
hole in the center and a crescentic hole on each side (Plate LIV, fig, 10). 

On the kaiak the float board is placed in front of the hunter with the arm-like 
points thrust beneath the cross lashing to hold it in position, and upon it lies the coil 
of float line with the spear attached and resting on the spear guards on the right rail 
of the boat; the end of the line is passed back under the hunter's right arm to the 
float, which, fully inflated, rests on the deck just back of the manhole. 

When the spear is thrown, the coil runs off rapidly and the float is thrown over- 
board. In some cases, when the prey is vigorous and leads a long pursuit, another 
line, like that shown in figure 9, Plate LIY, is made fast through the semilunar ori- 
fices in the center of the float board, which latter, when draw n through the water by 
means of this cord, assumes a position nearly at a right angle to the course of the 
animal and forms a heavy drag to impede its progress. 

When hunting on the ice, the float board, with the line coiled upon it, is carried 
in the left hand of the hunter and the spear in the right hand while he watches 
along the borders of the leads or holes for the appearance of the seals. When he 
succeeds in striking one, he holds firmly to the line until the animal is exhausted, 
or, if necessary, the float board attached to the line is cast into the water, w^hile the 
hunter hurries to his kaiak and embarks in pursuit. 

In plate 15 will be shown the method of uniting the toggle head with the loose 
shaft, this with the fore shaft, and the fore shaft with the shaft. This last joint is 
worthy of study, with its curious tenon and shoulder fitting into a socket at the end 
of the shaft. Especial attention is called to the manner in which the shaft is cut 
away a short distance on the outside to allow the lashing of sinew to draw the joint 
perfectly tight. Attention is also called to the method of fitting the splicing, at which 
the Eskimo are quite adept. On the surface of the fore shaft the dot and ring orna- 
ments occur. This decoration, wherever found, is an emblem of the existence of steel 
tools. Very little ornament exists on the old Eskimo weapons found in localities 
away from contact. 

The head of a toggle harpoon (Cat. No. 168625, U. S. N. M) from Bristol 
Bay, collected by William J. Fisher, is shown in fig. 88. The head is of 
bone, back sharp edged, front rounded, and the whole a flattened wedge 
shape at right angles to the line hole. The blade, of slate, is triangu- 
lar, with convex sides, and glued into a saw cut in the end of the head. 
This socket for the loose shaft is square in section and shallow. The 
butt end of the body is beveled as in most harpoons of this class, but 
in such manner as to form an offset on the margin of the socket, and 

1 Nelson, The Eskimo about Bering Strait, 1899, p. 138. 



Report of U. S. National Museum, 1900. — Mason. 



Plate 13. 



ft 




1 I 



i ii 



, » Va\\ 



I ■ ' 



Long-handled Barbed Harpoon, Bristol Bay, Alaska. 

Collected by William J. Fischer. 

Cat. No. 90416, U.S.N.M. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



297 



the single barb is formed by the meeting of the sharp back with the 

two edges of this bevel. The line hole passes straight 

through the body and is flanked by shallow wide grooves. 

The loose shaft is a piece of pine wood flattened and 

wedge-shaped at its butt end to fit into a wide socket at 

the end of the f oreshaf t, shouldered about 2 inches from 

this end and then tapering to the point of juncture with 

the body of the toggle head. The loose shaft passes 

into the shallow socket of the head, where it is hinged. 

A rawhide thong is passed through the line hole and 

tightly seized on either side of the loose shaft 3 inches 

below its outer end. This forms a hinge, so that when 

the body of the toggle head is drawn down the point of 

the loose shaft comes out of the socket, and the parts 

are held together by the wrapping or seizing. The two 

are further secured together by a grommet of spruce 

root. When in rest the wedge-shaped butt end of the 

loose shaft passes between the two sides of the rawhide 

line, and in unhinging from the toggle head this part 

also flies out in an opposite direction. At the end of the 

rawhide line is a loop for the attachment of a longer line. 

This old example is very interesting indeed, forming 
a connecting link between the Eskimo toggle head and 
the forms allied to it among the Indian tribes farther 
south. Length of head and blade, 6i inches; loose 
shaft, 9i inches. 

Plates 16 and 17 (Cat. Nos. 16407, 19382, and 72412, 
U.S.N.M.) show the forms of harpoon arrows in use on 
the north and the south side of the Alaskan peninsula. 
The last mentioned. No. 6 on the plate, from Bristol Bay, 
is farthest removed from the arrow and nearest the har- 
poon with its club-shaped head and bilateral barbs. The 
line hole in the barbed head, the line running from head 
to shaft, the socket for the head, the joint between head 
and shaft, are all suggestive of the small seal harpoon. 
No. 5 on the plate, from Cook Inlet, in its head approaches 
very near to the simplicit}^ of the Fuegian barbed har- 
poon. The half feathers set on radially are more Indian 
than Eskimo. Fig. 4 on Plate 16 is the delicate sea-otter 
arrow from Kadiak, the paragon of aboriginal pro- 
jectiles. The specimen is fully illustrated on Plate 17. 

This is the most elaborate and ingenious arrow known, 
and all of its parts, in every specimen, are most 
delicately finished. Such a weapon may well have been 
used in hunting the most costly of fur-bearing animals — the otter. 



Fig. 88, 

TOGOLE HAKPOON 
HEAD. 

Bristol Baj'. 
Collected by Wm. J. 
Fisher. Cat. No. 
U.S.N.M. 



298 EEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 

The shaft is of spruce, gently tapering toward the neck, which is 
large and bell shaped. Into the end of the shaft is inserted a foreshaft 
of bone, and into the end of this fits the barb. Feathers, three, sym- 
metrically trimmed and seized at both ends with delicately twisted 
sinew thread. The barbed head is perforated, and through these per- 
forations is attached a braided line at least 10 feet long. The other 
end of the shaft is secured to two points on the shaft by a martingale. 
When not in use the line is coiled neatly on the shaft and the barb is 
put in place in the foreshaft. When the arrow is shot, the barb enters 
the liesh of the otter, the loose fastening is undone, the line unrolled, 
the foreshaft drops into the water; the shaft acts as a drag and the 
feathers as a buoy to aid the hunter in tracing the animal. (See Plate 
LII, fig. 4.) 

Fig. 1. Arrow with line unrolled, showing relation of parts. 

Fig. 2. The shaftment. Attention is drawn to the delicate seizing 
with sinew thread, the natty trimming of the feather, the most effi- 
cient nock. 

Fig. 3. The lines and knots. Notice is given of the elegance of the 
braid, the efficient manner of "doing up" the line, the peculiar knot 
for the martingale. 

Fig. tt. The arrow ready to be shot. 

This form of arrow, with its southern type of sinew-backed bow, is 
found also on the Kuriles, where they were taken by Aleuts, carried 
over by the Russians to hunt sea otter. 

The arrows numbered 1, 2, and 3 in Plate 16 are from the same 
areas as the harpoon arrows just described, namel}^, from Bristol Bay 
to Kadiak. The heads are essentially those of harpoons, and are set 
into the ends of the shafts in the loosest manner b}^ a slight conical 
projection fitting into a socket. When the animal is struck the head 
withdraws itself and remains in the wound. A short piece of string 
between head and shaft would convert these three missiles into har- 
poon arrows. To make the likeness more complete. No. 3 has a 
wooden cap over the blade. 

Cat. No. 72518 in the U. S. National Museum is a sea-otter harpoon 
dart or Pishudak from Chernoborn Island, Cook Inlet. The bladder, 
shaft, assembling line, foreshaft, martingale, and barb are similar to 
the others in all respects excepting the attachment of the foreshaft to 
the shaft. A projection from the butt of the ivory foreshaft forms a 
wedge which tapers in two directions. In fact, the foreshaft is dove- 
tailed into the end of the shaft and seized with a sinew braid or sennit, 
which acts as the assembling line. See Plate 16 for details of Cat. 
No. 19382, a harpoon arrow from the same locality. Length of shaft, 
45i inches; of foreshaft, 3 inches; of point, 5 inches. Collected by 
William J. Fisher. 

Plate 18, Cat. No. 175825 in the U. S. National Museum, is a sea- 



Report of U. S. National Museum, 1900.— Mason. 



Plate 14. 




Toggle Harpoon, Line, and Float, Kusilvak, Yukon 
Collected by E. W. Nelson. 
Cat. No. 160337, U.S N.M. 



River. 



Report of U. S. National Museum, 1900. — Mason. 



Plate 15. 







Detail of Kusilvak Harpoon in Plate 14. 



ABOEIGINAL AMERICAN HAKPOONS. 299 

otter dart from Unalaska. The shaft is of spruce wood; it is light and 
delicately made, not quite cylindrical, but becoming thicker toward 
the front. The foreshaft is of whale's bone, thicker where it joins the 
shaft, tapering smaller towards the front, and expanding at the tip 
end; flattened a little in cross section. A plug of wood is inserted in 
the socket at the tip end. The point of ivor}^ has two barbs on one 
side and one on the other, and an extension or knob at the butt end, 
around which the line is fastened by a marlin hitch. The line is of 
sinew braid or sennit three-ply in the open parts, and six-ply between 
the martingale and the point. The martingale is tied, one end around 
the foreshaft and the other a little back of the middle of the shaft, by 
a cloye hitch. 

The shaft has in front a wedge with square front and shouldered in 
the rear. This wedge fits exactly into a slot in the butt end of the 
foreshaft. A small piece of birch bark is wrapped around the joint 
for packing and all the parts seized together yery neatly with the 
finest sinew thread. 

In this example, as in all others of its class, the shaft is painted 
red; on some of them the paint extends to the foreshaft. On a few 
examples bands of black paint are added at the butt end. Length of 
shaft, 42 inches; of foreshaft, Ti inches; of point, 2i inches. 

Feathers on the shaftment or butt end of the shaft, three, set on 
radially. The nock of this specimen is not unlike the foreshaft in 
form, only, in place of the notch to fit the bow^ string, there is a flat 
cone on the tip end with a small pit on the end to catch into the iyory 
hook on the foreshaft. By comparing this specimen with the harpoon 
arrows in Plates 16 and 17 the student has the best possible oppor- 
tunity of seeing the close kinship between the harpoon and the arrow. 
It is entirely a matter of propulsion, whether from the hand, from a 
bow, or from an atlatl or throwing stick. 

Plate 19 (Cat. No. 11362, U.S.N.M.) represents a barbed harpoon 
with bladder and hand rest. From Kadiak, and collected by Vincent 
Colyer. 

The shaft is of pine wood, tapering gradually from the point to 
the butt. At the front end the shaft is widened out into a cylin- 
drical form for about 2 inches and notched in like a spool. There is 
no foreshaft in this specimen. The socket for the point is lenticular 
in cross section and the spool-shaped space is filled with a wrapping 
of fine sinew braid. The shaft is ornamented with rings and longi- 
tudinal stripes in black, and the space between the two attachments of 
the martingale is painted solid black. 

The point is of walrus ivory or hard bone, delicately made. There 
are two barbs on one side near the butt, which at a side yiew 
resemble the hoof of an animal. At the inner margin of one of these, 
three little dots and lines are added by way of ornament. On the 



300 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 

other side is a small barb or hook, which could scarcely be of any 
use. The tang is not tapered or shouldered, but is quite wide. 
The line hole is round, and into it is set a thong of rawhide, doubled 
and joined together at its ends and likewise near the barb by a lashing 
of sinew thread. Just above the point, where the two ends of the 
thong are bound together with sinew thread, a braided cord of sinew 
passes between the two ends of the thong and is made fast by a half 
hitch, a knot being tied in the end of the braid to prevent its coming 
undone. The braid constitutes the \Vne of the harpoon. A few feet 
from the point, where the braid is attached to the rawhide leader of 
the barbed head, it is separated into two smaller braids, and these 
become the branches of the martingale, the ends of which are attached, 
one under the bridle, the other 3 feet from the front end of the shaft. 
The hand rest is a short piece of the black horn of the mountain goat. 
Its base fits on the shaft. Through a hole in this horn a lashing of 
sinew thread passes around the shaft several times. The bladder has 
at one end a delicate mouthpiece of ivor}^ set against the shaft, held in 
place b}^ sinew thread passing through perforations in the mouthpiece. 
At the other end the bladder is attached to the shaft by means of a 
rawhide thong tied a few inches away. At five different places on the 
shaft, namely, the two points of attachment for the martingale, the 
place of the hand rest, and the two points of attachment for the blad- 
der, are bands of white birch bark, which serve both for ornament and 
as a soft packing to hold the different lashings in place. The manner 
in which the line is done up on the shaft when the harpoon is ready 
for action, by means of a loose knot, which is easily untied, is shown. 
In ever}^ respect this is a well-made and graceful implement. Length 
of shaft, 8 feet 5 inches; point, 8 inches. 

The Samoyed harpoon, on the testimony of Nordenskiold, consists 
of a large and strong iron head, very sharp on the outer edge and pro- 
vided with a barb. The head is loosely fixed to the shaft, but securelj^ 
fastened to the end of a slender line 10 fathoms long, generally made 
of walrus hide. The line is fastened at its other end to the boat, in 
the fore part of which it lies in a carefully arranged coil. There are 
from five to ten such harpoon lines in every hunting boat. When 
the hunters see a herd of walrus, either on a piece of drift ice or in the 
water, they endeavor, silently and against the wind, to approach suffi- 
ciently near to one of the animals to be able to harpoon it. If this 
succeeds, the walrus first dives and then endeavors to swim under water 
all he can. But he is fixed with the line to the boat and must draw it 
along. His comrades swim toward the boat, curious to ascertain the 
cause of the alarm. A new walrus is transfixed with another harpoon, 
and so it goes on until, one after another, all the harpoons are in use. 
The ])oat is now drawn forward at a whizzing speed, although the row 
ers hold back with the oars; but there is no actual danger so long as 



Report of U. S. National Museum, 1900— Masor 



Plate 16 





Barbed Sea Otter Harpoon Arrows, Alaskan Peninsula. 

Collected by W. H. Dall, James Curley, and Charles L. McKay. 

Cat. Nos. 16407, 193«2, 72412, U.S.N.M. 



Report of U. S. National Museum, 1900.— Mason, 



Plate 17. 




Detail of Sea Otter Harpoon Arrow Alaskan Peninsula. 



ABOEIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 



301 



Fig. 

IRON TOGGLE HEAD. 

Amur River. 
After \:on Schrenk. 



all the animals draw in the same direction. If one of them seeks to 
take a different course from that of his comrades in misfortune his 
line must be cut off, otherwise the boat capsizes. When 
the walruses get exhausted by their exertions and by loss 
of blood, the hunters begin to haul in the lines. One 
animal after another is drawn to the stem of the boat, 
and there they commonly first get a blow on the head 
with the flat of a lance, and when the}^ turn to guard 
against it a lance is thrust into the heart. ^ Whatever 
view one takes regarding the blood kinship between 
the peoples of northeastern Asia 
and those of North America, or 
between the languages of the 
two areas, the kinship of inven- 
tions is not to be denied. How 
far a device may travel or be 
transmitted without changing so 
much as one word in any lan- 
guage or one drop of blood is not 
known. A whale has been known 
to carry a harpoon head halfway 
around the world and deliver it 
safely to a company of natives on 
the other side; and a throwing 
stick, with which harpoons are 
hurled, drifted from Bering 
Strait to western Greenland. 

The harpoon has been brieflv 
traced throughout the Western 
Hemisphere. It remains to no- 
tice one or two forms in which 
the sailor and the blacksmith 
have supplanted almost entirely 
the aboriginal mechanic. Boas 
figures an iron toggle head (1888. 
p. 173) now in the Berlin Museum 
of Ethnology. It is of iron, pre- 
serves the general shape of the native barbed 
and toggle head, the blade, spurs, and line hole 
being in parallel planes. The natives, according 
to Boas, also file these heads out of bits of iron. 
The end of the line is bent, run through the line 
hole, and fastened down by a compound splice (fig. 89). The fact has 
been already mentioned that toggle heads of bone were made wholesale 




Fig. 89. 

MODERN HARPOON 

HEAD OF IRON. 

Cumberland Sourd. 
In Berlin Museum fiir 

Yolkerkunde, after 

Franz Boas. 






' A. E. Nordenskiold, Voyage of the Vega, I, 1881, p. 156. 
NAT MUS 1900 22 



302 



EEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



in former times, and traded to the Eskimo for valuable furs. In the- 
National Museum there is among the Nelson collection a small toggle 

head of cast iron all in one piece, tig. 86, 
the model of which was a native example 
of ivory and iron. 

Fig. 90 is taken from Schrenk/ and shows 
the same invasion of iron into native arts. 
The object is a combined barbed and toggle 
head, in which, however, the barbs play the 
chief part. The leader, of rawhide, pre- 
serves its ancient bends and knots, and the 
eyes peeping from the foreshaft are cer- 
tainly survivals of the ancient regime. 

A*^harpoon (Cat. No. 19518, U.S.N.M.) 
from Cumberland Sound, collected by 
George Y. Nickerson, is shown in fig. 91. 
It is an interesting mixture of ancient forms 
with modern. The shaft is a well-turned, 
spindle-shaped piece of oak wood. The 
hand rest is an old ivor}^ piece, turned ta 
right angles, set 
into the shaft for a 
short distance, and 
bound on with two 
seizings of sinew 
braid. Just below 
the hand rest is an 
iron loop through 
which thelineruns. 
The foreshaft is a 
long bar of iron, 
set into the head 
of the shaft and 
packed, the joint 
being made fast by 
means of an iron 
ferrule. Near the 
inner end of the 
shaft is a padding 

of rawhide, connected a few inches away with 

the end of the shaft by a stiff rawhide sprig. 

The object of this ball is not known, but it may have acted as a buffer 

for catching the blow. The ice pick at the butt end of the shaft is also 




" ^tffov^tS ^ 



•'r*^^^?iS^/^ 



_;.-.■ f?:'|:'0?iS^; 



Fig. 91. 
SHAFT OF TOGGLE HARPOON. 

Cumberland Sound. 

Collected by Geo. Y. Nickerson. Cat. No. 

19518. U.S.N.M. 



r 


:-• "^ 






,^_- 


) J": 


[ 


'-Ol 


•< a 



Fig. 92. 

BONE FORESHAFT OF HARPOON, 

Bristol Bay. 

Collected by Charles McKay. Cat. 

No. 72403, U.S.N.M. 



Plate 42, fig. 2. 



Report of U. S. National Museum, 1900.— Mason. 



Plate 18. 




li 



ix 






Barbed Harpoon Dart for throwing Stick, Unalaska. 
Collected by United States Fish Commission. 
Cat. No. 175825, U.S.N.M. 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN HARPOONS. 303 

of iron. It is impossible to conceive of a more excellent illustration 
of the fading out of an ancient primitive form and the gradual intro- 
duction of new elements. 

The bone foreshaft (Cat. No. 72403, U.S.N.M.) of a large whaling or 
walrus harpoon from Bristol Bay is shown in fig. 92. It is the last 
expression in the use of modern tools for the preparation of a very 
ancient device. If this be compared with the gash in the end of the 
Fuegian harpoon, it will be seen that great progress has been made 
at this particular point. The upper part is carefully turned and the 
lower part cut with a tenon, so formed that when placed at the end 
of the shaft the strain in every direction is provided for. Collected 
by Charles L. M. McKay. 

CONCLUSION. 

The harpoon is the most complicated of the devices invented by 
uncivilized peoples. In a hemisphere capable of awakening every 
kind of human wants and needs, furnishing an infinite variety of sup- 
plies to these from place to place, providing one sort of materials for 
the harpoon here and quite another sort there, inhabited by native 
tribes endowed with great range of genius, it would be expected that 
a universal weapon should take on every possible form. Just as the 
whale ship of yesterday, its friend and contemporary, has been replaced 
by the ship driven by steam, so the Eskimo at present kills the seal, 
the walrus, the whale, and the arctic land mammals with a rifle and 
explosive cartridges instead of the ancient harpoon. Should the 
Eskimo use his great weapon at all, it will be, as Murdoch shows, to 
retrieve his game on the edge of the ice after it is shot, and not as a 
killing device. 

Both the ship and the harpoon served benevolent purposes, since 
they fostered and stimulated ingenuity until the fullness of time for 
steamships and firearms arrived. The harpoon is the climax of pierc- 
ing inventions, which include daggers, lances, spears, javelins, and 
arrows of all kinds — held in the hand, hurled from the hand, either 
unaided or with the help of hand rest, amentum or atlatl, or shot from 
a bow. As was noted in the preceding drawings and descriptions, the 
harpoon had no limit in its application, being equally efficient on the 
land, in the air, in the water, or through the ice, at long range or short 
range, with short or long shaft, in some examples this part a hundred 
feet in length. The simplest forms have three rude parts; the most 
highly developed a score or more. Besides its own complexit}^, it has 
in the arctic area dominated the kaiak in its upper part, as well as the 
dress of the man, and called forth any number of accessories for 
decoying, finding, watching, taking out of the water, and carrying 
home. 

When it is remembered that every part of this complex apparatus 



304 KEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 

must be most efficacious for its region and quarry, and not bulky, one 
is not astonished to find a great variety of patterns in the structure and 
in the knots on the lines. The Eskimo themselves were not all agreed 
on these points. Hence, for example, Murdoch discusses the question 
whether the blade of the toggle head shoukl be in the plane of the line 
hole or across it. Again, the length of the shaft and other character- 
istics were, in certain limits, fitted to the hunter. One has onh^ to 
look through Nelson's plates to be convinced that there was a range 
of individual choice in many parts. While, therefore, it is correct to 
say that all harpoons of the dili'erent t3^pes resemble one another in 
the same area, it is equally proper to add that no two harpoons are 
alike. 

Besides the lesson in the history of invention which this study 
affords, other questions arise. What help do these technical speci- 
mens offer to the ethnologist and the archaeologist in deciding race, 
language, migrations, and antiquity ? Can it be said of a harpoon, or 
some of its parts, found without label in a collection, that it was made 
by this or that tribe, or that it came from a certain area? Or, if in a 
shell heap or village site or grave certain harpoon parts are found, 
will a comparison with the drawings or descriptions in this paper tell 
who the makers of these relics might have been ? In the first place, 
if the technical products of peoples now living are to throw light upon 
ethnic and archeeologic investigations, these products must be collected 
in large numbers and the identit}^ of those who made and used them 
must be settled beyond controversy. With reference to precious 
material gathered after the discovery and scattered in private and 
public collections, it is safe to label them as to tribe and localit}^ by the 
help of specimens lately acquired by scientific collectors. In this way 
the mouths of these dumb witnesses will be opened. It must not be 
forgotten, however, that unit}" of race is a matter of blood, of kinship; 
that unity of speech is a matter of lip and ear, and requires some close 
contact; while unit}" of industry is a matter of eye and hand and may 
be easily communicated from afar. 

On the question, how much of all this invention is of native growth 
and what proportion is exotic, wide differences of opinion still exist. 

To begin with, all iron and all work of iron are in a sense new, 
added, accultural; not out and out, but in varying proportion and for 
the most part merely substitutional. The iron blade takes the place 
of a stone blade only as a better stone. It is hammered and ground 
similarly. The simple tools alter shapes but little; they merely cut, 
saw, grind, and pierce better than the old. But a more vigorous sub- 
stitution took place in the barter of devices between savage tribes 
widely separated, but made acquainted, first in their own commerce, 
and afterwards by the fishing and fur trading interests of the white 
settlers. 



^Report of U. S. National Museum, 1900.— Mason 



Plate 19. 




Barbed Harpoon with Float, Kadiak, Alaska. 

Collected by Vincent Collyer. 

Cat. No. 11362. U.S.N. M. 




I 019 953 769 6 





